"Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. In the present social and cultural context, where there is a widespread tendency to relativize truth, practising charity in truth helps people to understand that adhering to the values of Christianity is not merely useful but essential for building a good society and for true integral human development."

Caritas in Veritate is the fruit of the Church's reflection on the challenges facing the world today. Pope Benedict seeks to set the moral framework in which such challenges can be addressed, by saying that the charitable desire to work for the good of the world must always be balanced with the need to act in the light of the full truth about humanity.