I hope you will not be too bored with this month's subject: the economic and social teachings of the "Roman Church-State." [On a personal note, when I couldn't "cut the mustard" studying Physics and Optical Engineering in college, I ended up majoring in Economics]. Roman Catholicism is a top-down religion - their is no salvation apart from the Roman Church, and it flows down from the Pope (holder of the keys), to the bishops, to the priests, and then to the laity. Rome tells Her faithful to trust them for their common spiritual good. Similarly, in the temporal matters of economics the Pope's consistent message is to trust centralized government.

Historically, the Papacy has been an enemy of Capitalism. It has been friendly to corporatist and distributionist structures: Feudal guilds, socialism, fascism, interventionism and liberation theology. There are three major socio-economic teachings that undergird this tendency: the Universal Destination of Goods, Solidarity, and Subsidiarity.

Catholics revere Thomas Aquinas as the supreme theologian of ethics, philosophy and political thought. He taught that natural law did not support ownership of private property apart from need. In other words, morally speaking, whoever needs property is entitled to it.  John Robbins (see the Book of the Month) notes that the Roman Catholic doctrine of private property is echoed in the Communist slogan: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." The first, and most important social doctrine of Rome, is the "Universal Destination of Goods."

What does this mean? Everything on earth belongs to all people in common. Therefore, it is manifestly unjust that some should have abundance while others are in need. The Catholic Church makes a distinction between ownership and use of property. It becomes the moral imperative of government to redistribute from those who own property to those who need to use it. Catholic teaching mandates that government must ensure, protect and regulate all human rights. Here is a list of some of these rights, from Catholic encyclicals: Right of freely founding unions for working people, right to culture, right to emigrate, right to immigrate, right to food, right to clothing, right to rest, right to a just wage, right to life, right to a safe environment, right to personal security of workers, right to common use of all goods, right to work, right to a pension, right to insurance for old age, right to security, right to necessary social services, right to education, right to employment, right to appropriate information, right to professional training, and right to adequate health care. 

Solidarity is the Catholic doctrine used to promote economic interventionism and world government. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part on this." Solidarity is directly related to the universal destination of goods in that it provides the structure for collectivism and the redistribution of these goods. It is the government's role to promote solidarity - ideally under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Rome is consistent in its spiritual and temporal teachings. She hates the idea of justification by faith alone for the obvious reason that it diminishes her power. Salvation cannot be received through the working of the Holy Spirit at the level of individual faith in the finished work of Christ. It is only available in solidarity with Her. Similarly, economic liberty and the "invisible hand" of capitalism cannot work because of its atomist reliance on individual initiative, free competition and personal responsibility.

The Catholic teaching of Subsidiarity seems to contradict the previous two doctrines. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Excessive intervention of the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principal of subsidiarity, according to which 'a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good." (1883). Catholic politician Paul Ryan has promoted the House Republican version of the proposed U.S. budget as reflective of Subsidiarity and thus Catholic social teaching.

But as with all teachings, the devil is in the details. Far from promoting smaller government, the Catholic teaching on subsidiarity is bound by the two previous teachings of the Universal Destination of Goods and Solidarity. It is the responsibility of the larger government to support and co-ordinate the activities of the smaller government, with an eye toward the "common good." Robbins points out: "Far from being a restraint on state power, subsidiarity enhances state power. Furthermore, that increased state power is to be used to monitor all aspects of society, to direct them to ends and purposes chosen by the higher authority within the state, to stimulate and restrain them so that they follow the directions of the higher authority. Thus subsidiarity is not a restriction on the power of government at all, but merely a principle of efficient management designed to make the most effective use of the government's power and resources." Power still flows from the top down, and usurps individual liberties.

Paul tells Christians to be in subjection to the governing authorities, because they are servants of God who wield the sword for the punishment of evildoers and the protection of the righteous (Rom. 13). But the book of Revelation also warns us of a time when government will be so oppressive that one cannot buy or sell apart from the authority of the Beast. Rome denies that the Church and the State should be separate - and she herself is an example of a Church-State, with ambassadors and intelligence agents all over the world. The promotion of ever larger, even world, government is the goal of Romish social, political and economic teaching.

Remember to pray for our government leaders, that they may govern wisely.

In Christ,

Dale

Topic for next month: Where is Jesus?