Not the least of the effects of the rise and success (for a while) of Communism, was that is worldly terms it left the Church with no choice but to support capitalism. Rerum Novarum expressed the concerns the Church felt for some of the effects of free-market capitalism, but whatever those doubts, they were as nothing compared to the evils of Communism and its godless creed. Such evils come and they go, and the Church has seen off all of them, as its founder promised it would; it has even survived centuries of man’s attempts to govern it! So it was that a century after Rerum Novarum, St Pope John Paul II (as he then wasn’t) issued an important encyclical, Centesimus Annus, in which, freed from the constraints of the Cold War (which he, himself, had done so much to bring to a successful conclusion), he was able to bring his wisdom to bear on the issues raised by Leo XIII.
The fatal flaw in socialist anthropology was its materialism – it subordinated the individual to the socio-economic system, and it believed that class war was the motor of history; where Christianity had preached the value of every human being, socialism, based on atheism, saw each of us as no more than ants in the common ant-heap. No fan of a system he had grown to manhood under, John Paul II was equally clear-eyed about the alternative, asking whether those countries recently freed from the Communist yoke should seek to adopt capitalism, he offered this reflection:
The answer is obviously complex. If by capitalism is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a business economy, market economy, or simply free economy. But if by capitalism is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative [CA 42]
As he said at the time, the Church “has always refused and still refuses today to make the market the supreme regulator or almost the model or synthesis of social life.” As he said in 1993:
Catholic social doctrine is not a surrogate for capitalism. In fact, although decisively condemning “socialism,” the church, since Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, has always distanced itself from capitalistic ideology, holding it responsible for grave social injustices (cf. Rerum Novarum, 2). In Quadragesimo Anno Pius XI, for his part, used clear and strong words to stigmatize the international imperialism of money (Quadragesimo Anno, 109). This line is also confirmed in the more recent magisterium, and I myself, after the historical failure of communism, did not hesitate to raise serious doubts on the validity of capitalism … .
The Church does not endorse any economic system. Capitalism has delivered more people from poverty than any other system mankind has invented, but it is to the job of Catholic social teaching to uncritically endorse it – whatever some culture warriors might have us think – the church’s proper contribution is its social teaching which, in the prophetic mode, “recognizes the positive value of the market and of enterprise, but which at the same time points out that these need to be oriented toward the common good” [CA 43].
For the past few days I have been suggesting that our Western society has, in losing God, lost a set of principles which are more valuable than those of any economic system and which, if (and when) understood, infuse any economic system with a concern for the common good which stands in the tradition of our social teaching. We have, as a people, grown and prospered, and yet this has brought no greater degree of happiness and social cohesion; and now the great machine has slowed, we can see this more clearly. Catholic social teaching has been seen by some as the last remaining ‘show in town’ – let us hope it gets a prolonged run.
All Along the Watchtower 
An excellent post and article that you linked to at the end of the piece.
I think what is left somewhat unsaid is the government’s role in the ‘common good’ that should be addressed by our economy. For sure, government has a role in the regulation and fairness of business and markets but they have over-reached their role by going from referee to being a player.
And because they are players, we no longer trust the markets, bankers or politicians. How can you trust Obama and his regime that decided to ‘pardon’ criminal behavior of companies? And it is not as if the government has its own funds to do this; it used the future wealth of the people and their children and grandchildren to do so. What gives them the right to spend the people’s money to bail out their cronies?
Ask yourself, if the government acted as an agent for the ‘common good’ in all of this. Also, it is noteworthy to mention the governments pressuring of the banks and mortgage holders to give credit to people who they never would have been able to give a mortgage or loan to in the past. They almost muscled them into this bundling of junk funds and found that it was rather lucrative . . . until it failed and the government stepped in to save their butts. And what about Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae and the heads of these groups who should have been jailed? No wonder that the people are angrier than most folks thought. It was another case of the elites scratching the backs of other elites. People are tired of such corruption.
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People are tired of such corruption.
Cathols never tire of their corrupt clergy. They love it.
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They are indeed – and so we come back to values and ethics – and without a Christian formation, where are eternal ones to be found?
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I know. It seems an impossible task to move governments to embrace such values and ethics; its not in their DNA. It is appalling that we allowed such mediocrity to descend to absolute corruption and an ethic of ingratiating themselves. It will take some doing to uproot this evil tree.
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The Church does not endorse any economic system.
The CC has in its passion more gold than god. It doesn’t need an economic system. It is an economic system. Of course, it claims to be a pilgrim on earth, with a bank and a jail and rooms full of torture equipment.
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Hi, Bruvver Bosco, we don’t use the torture equipment during the year of mercy, but watch out, as we’ll be coming for the evil clowns as soon as it’s over.
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Year of mercy. Holy Office. Holy See. Society of Jesus.Big words for a bunch of homosexuals and pedophiles. And you fit rite in there good brother Eccles.
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Dear me, bruvver Bosco, you hasn’t been keeping up wiv my luvvly blogg. I is about as enthusiastic about the Jesuits as you is, although having a few shreds of decency about me I doesn ‘t need to use fowl language ike you does.
Now go back to your Islamic rituals, and stop baring false wetnurses against saved pussons. Just cos Fr Amorth is dead it doesn’t mean that we can’t find someone else to deal wiv your demonic possesions.
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Foul language. How nice do you want to talk about these guys? One seminarian, who was about to be \come a catholic priest, was caught attempting to buy a 1 yr old and a 2 yr old from Mexico to have sex with. Come on, lets hear some rosy words about him. Hes just the one who got caught. The rest slip under the radar, and you can find them at your local catholic Roman Temple handing out Isis Horus and Seth crackers. You mealy mouthed little worm. Away with you.
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The CC doesn’t endorse any system, but it owns syock in every major coropation known to man.
Jesus had not where to lay his head,
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Pingback: Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism | All Along the Watchtower
While perhaps the role of the church is largely prophetic, it also seems clear that certain economic formations are totally incompatible with a Christian understanding and thus largely incapable of being baptised by it. I am thinking primarily of fascist organized societies or else industrial economies that are so unregulated that working conditions are hardly to be differentiated from slave labor. Both of which strike me as irredeemable without an actual change in the social structure.
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I’d agree wholeheartedly.
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While it seems true that in general the Church plays a largely prophetic role, it also seems clear to me that there are certain economic formations that are totally incompatible with a Christian understanding and are thus incapable of being baptised by it. I am thinking primarily about fascist systems or unregulated industrial economies where the treatment of workers is such that it is hardly different from slavery. These sorts of formations are irredeemable unless there is a change in the social structure itself. As such the Church could conceivably take on a much more active role in opposition to them.
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