The measure of Magnifica Humanitas cannot be taken today, so soon after its release. We won’t know for many years what sort of legacy it might have. But if it does have a legacy, it just may be the salvaging of the Church’s “social doctrine.”
“Salvaging” is a strong word, but even one of Catholic social teaching’s most thoughtful and sympathetic interpreters describes it as a mess. Russell Hittinger has noted that the mode of the teaching is not systematic, neither obviously doctrinal in its content nor ordered in its presentation. Though the label “Catholic social doctrine” suggests something clear and definitive, it feels haphazard and ad hoc. Hittinger has described its characteristic mode of presentation as “juxtaposition,” lacking the coherence of argument, synthesis, or even narrative.
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