Topics

World on FIRE

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

The FIRE strategy -- which stands for financial independence, retire early -- doesn’t alter the debt-peonage economy; it just carves out exceptions for a select few.

Are Catholicism & Socialism Compatible?

Thomas Storck

Unlike the ideologies of both socialism and capitalism, the Church promotes a society in which all of life functions as a harmonious whole leading to Heaven.

Should Christians Pay Reparations for Racial Injustices?

SUCH AN AIM REQUIRES FULL COMMUNION WITH CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH

Casey Chalk

The Church can engage in the work of racial reparations, but only while placing the project within a broader moral framework.

Socialism: A Christian Heresy?

ITS GNOSTIC ROOTS & UNDYING APPEAL

Nicholas J. Healy

Socialism rejects the salvation of Jesus Christ and insists that man can be “freed” through the destruction of Church, family, and community.

The Vatican’s Filthy Lucre

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Peter’s Pence doesn’t solicit funds for financial speculation that fattens the Vatican’s investment portfolios; the fund shouldn’t be used that way.

A Map for the Christian Family-Man

Barbara E. Rose

Instead of frittering away his time, a young man needs to take charge of his livelihood and plan his own family-centered home economy.

Perfecting the Social Order

Thomas Storck

The foundations of Catholic social teaching are not in economic morality but in Catholic doctrine about the state and the nature of the human person.

Cooperation & Supernatural Brotherliness

CAPE BRETON DIARY — PART II

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

Subsidiarity and solidarity were practiced in Cape Breton under the influence of the Catholic social-justice experiment, the Antigonish Movement.

Economics for the Human Person

REDISCOVERING THE HUMAN FACE OF COMMERCE

James V. Schall

The Bishops' Pastoral on the Economy & the Scandal of Catholicism

"RUM, ROMANISM & REBELLION" — REVISITED

Dale Vree

Making Sense of Papal Economics

Christopher Beiting

A review of Papal Economics: The Catholic Church on Democratic Capitalism, from Rerum Novarum to Caritas in Veritate

A Caricature of Charity

A PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR WHOM?

John A. Perricone

Can Free-Market Principles Reverse America's Decline?

David J. Peterson

A review of Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future

New Names for Old Things

THOMAS STORCK REPLIES

Thomas Storck

More Valuable Than Money

The Church's teaching office is highly centralized, but her finances are highly decentralized -- making for a system prone to mismanagement and abuse.

What Does It Mean to 'Serve Mammon'?

A HEART PIERCED WITH MANY PANGS

Christopher Zehnder

The ideal of the New Testament is not the wealthy man but the man who abandons all for the Kingdom of God, he who does not look back even to bury his dead.

Man-Child in the Promised Land

Video games, superhero movies, and comic-book conventions are marketed to grown men, who comprise a significant portion of consumers of such products.

The Limits of the Moral Law

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS "SOCIAL SIN" ?

Thomas Storck

We cannot leave politics and economics, or war and peace, to the devil on the plea that it is too complex or too difficult to implement real reform.

Cornered by the Market

Once the 'market mentality' infects a society, authentic human relations suffer. Do we want a market economy or a market ? Where should consumerism end?

Is Your Job on the Endangered-Species List?

As the economy and culture become increasingly feminized, how long will it be before we start speaking of a "glass ceiling" for men?

Why Consumerism Still Consumes Us

STUCK ON THE HEDONIC ESCALATOR

Eric Brende

Since consumerism inverts every Christian priority, Christianity can only respond by inverting consumerism, by putting material things last.

American Catholics: Unclear on the Concepts

Are American Catholics dense? That seemed, at first blush, to be the underlying message delivered by Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson.

The Christian Art of Christmas Spending

WHAT IS MONEY FOR?

Mitchell Kalpakgian

Cheerful giving lifts man from the cold, heartless realm of business transactions to a spiritual world of liberality and abundance.

Get Married, Save the Economy

A report by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office stated that legalization of same-sex marriage in all fifty states would generate a huge tax windfall.

Business Ethics According to Pope John Paul II

ENTERPRISE AS AN ACT OF LOVE

Jim Wishloff

All our actions in enterprise must be, according to John Paul II, "in conformity with the dignity and integral vocation of the human person."

Recovering the Virtue of Prudence in an Age of Fraud

LAST THINGS

Tom Bethell

It's a strange idea that a nation can spend its way to prosperity, but among economists it's not even controversial.

Houses Built on Sand

EDITORIAL

Pieter Vree

If we are wise, recent economic crises will remind us that all we gather on this earth eventually slips out of our grasp. Wealth and security are transient.

The Enemy Within

Why are wealthy bankers being handed golden government parachutes while our neighbors who are being foreclosed are kicked to the curb?

Christopher Lasch, Radical Orthodoxy & the Modern Collapse of the Self

CAPITALISM: A CHRISTIAN HERESY?

Adam Parsons

Lasch combined a leftist critique of extant economic structures with an appreciation for the value of cultural tradition.

The Traditional Catholic Worker Movement

Thomas Storck

Dorothy Day's movement is a solid expression of traditional Catholicism, rooted in the spirituality and thought of the Church.

Economics Is Not Chemistry

Thomas Storck

Economists have tried to emulate the natural sciences and to present economics as a science that is able to predict human behavior, not simply describe it.

The Church’s Social Patrimony

Thomas Storck

A review of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

The Background to ‘Rerum Novarum’

Thomas Storck

Review of Catholic Social Teaching: An Historical Perspective by Roger Aubert, edited by David A. Boileau

Absolute Economic Power Corrupts Absolutely

Thomas Storck

Whether in the Third World or in rural America, the financial and political powers care little about the lives of those who happen to be in the way of "progress."

Financial Success, But at What Price?

BEN FRANKLIN & BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER

Mitchell Kalpakgian

Obsession with work and “workaholism” produce dangerous effects that lead to a desensitizing, deadening, and dehumanizing of the spirit.

The Spiritual Hazards of Wealth

REFLECTIONS ON CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

Tom Bethell

Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, promulgated in 1891, remains closely in touch with the true mission of the Catholic Church: the salvation of souls.

A Giant Among Catholic Economists

Thomas Storck

Those who have studied conventional economics will find in Heinrich Pesch a starting point that is faithful both to economic facts and to the Church's teaching.

Possessed by Our Possessions

Thomas Storck

We have a society of many willing workaholics with low civic participation, families falling apart, unsupervised children, and lonely old people.

Why (Most) Women Will Never Again Be Happy

According to free-market laws, the (almost) doubling of the labor supply will reduce wages to (almost) half. And so it was.

Is Globalization Inevitable?

Thomas Storck

Globalization of the economy could be halted or at least significantly modified so that the people of the world, rather than corporate interests, will benefit.

The Social Purpose of Private Property

Thomas Storck

There is no principle in even the best marketing theory to distinguish useful goods that might benefit the public from evil or useless items.

Debt Relief the Cyrenian Way

GUEST COLUMN

A. Cyrenian

The Cyrenian approach to debt relief is personal: he lends a debtor money out of his own pocket at an unbeatable interest rate — nothing.

The "Stumbling and Tripping" of Executive Pay

STOCK PRICES & DISCONNECTED CAPITAL

Michael J. Naughton

Good will not come from maximizing stockholder wealth, but rather from reconnecting capital to labor and communities with a stake in it.

"The Church's Best Kept Secret"

Thomas Storck

Although the Church’s social doctrine is an integral part of her patrimony, it has elicited little interest, even from Catholics.

Can Economic Justice Be Achieved Without Law?

FALLEN MAN & FALLEN MONEY-MAKING

Thomas Storck

Economics must be about more than what I do with my property; it must concern itself with the needs of the whole human race.

Preparing for the Return of The Catholic State

David Arias Jr.

Honoring Christ as Sovereign King is not contrary to or unrelated to the human person’s fulfillment, but rather it is a necessary condition for it.

The Scandal of Catholic Teachers' Pay

LOW-PAID HIGH-ACHIEVERS

Rupert J. Ederer

If states offer school vouchers to parents, then states should require teacher salaries commensurate with those of public-school teachers.

'Power to the People' Can Only Mean Property to the People

A PRACTICAL RESPONSE TO CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

John C. Medaille

Capitalism and socialism begin with a practical materialism that elevates things over man or, worse, reduces man to a thing.

The Religion of the Marketplace

NONJUDGMENTALISM, COMPETITION & THE PRIMACY OF DESIRE

Joseph Tussman

This Faith has three basic dogmas: the primacy of desire, the creative energy of competition, and “nonjudgmentalism.”

Neither Statism nor Individualism

THE CATHOLIC VIEW OF MAN & SOCIETY

Thomas Storck

If we are to subject all our being, thinking, and living to Christ and His Church, we cannot ignore the existence of Catholic social teaching.

The Sovietization of American Women

"NYET," SAY THE POPES

Rupert J. Ederer

John Paul II wrote, “The mentality which honors women more for their work outside the home than for their work within the family must be overcome.”

Capitalism Is Squandering Its Inheritance

GUEST COLUMN

David C. Stolinsky

Free enterprise in its earlier stage was the unwitting and ungrateful beneficiary of generations of hardworking, God-fearing people.

Our Economy of Paper & Hot Air

DISNEY BOSS IS PAID $565 MILLION IN ONE YEAR

Rupert J. Ederer

The inflated paper value of our corporate structure as reflected in stocks has not the remotest connection to real capital.

The Americanization of the Globe

THE "NEW ORDER OF THE AGES"?

Thomas Storck

It is in the economic and political interests of the U.S. to ensure the world’s common language is English, and common standards are American.

Toward a Family-Centered Economy

STRENGTHENING THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE

Allan C. Carlson

The natural family household serves as a unit of both production and consumption, one built on altruism and love, where the principle of selfless sharing actually works.

Is Economic Justice Possible in This World? (Is Chastity?)

ON THE PERSEVERANCE OF AUTHENTIC CATHOLICS

Thomas Storck

Whatever obstacles there are to achieving worldwide economic justice, the obstacles to achieving worldwide chastity are just as great.

The Dilemma of Catholic Corporate Executives

IN A SYSTEM THAT PUNISHES VIRTUE & JUSTICE

James K. Fitzpatrick

The attention to common decency, justice, and fairness that we expect from the small businessman is applicable to General Motors and Microsoft too.

Cultural Socialism & the Culture of Capitalism

TWO FACES OF ANTI-CHRISTIAN MATERIALISM

Thomas Storck

Materialism hides behind the often just economic proposals of some socialists, and behind the efficiency and productivity of certain capitalist systems.

Why the Frathouse Boy With the Adam Smith Tie Doesn't Look So Smart These Days

HEY, THE GO-GO 80S ARE REALLY OVER!

James K. Fitzpatrick

Champions of the global economy accepted a trade-off: a richer world but with a good many poorer Americans.

Whose Money Is It, Anyway?

DON'T RUSH IN WHERE RUSH DOESN'T FEAR TO TREAD

James K. Fitzpatrick

Society does have a claim on the wealth that is in our hands. Because it had a lot to do with placing it there.

The Counterculture Turns Right (Economically)

THE WORST OF BOTH LIBERALISM & CONSERVATISM

James K. Fitzpatrick

The considerable number of old 60s radicals who grew to guard their vast wealth were motivated by self-interest back in their hippie days too.

The Blessings of Downward Mobility

CAN WE RECOVER THE LOST AMERICAN DREAM

Andrew Sorokowski

By narrowing one’s choices, a dearth of disposable income reduces life to manageable proportions. Leisure time is peaceful and vast.

Sin Is Good For the Economy

THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

William A. Marra

Immoral behavior is guaranteed to “create more jobs”; and every bit of the subsequent economic “growth” is strictly malignant.

The Problem Is Not Too Many People

ON POVERTY & POLLUTION

Thomas Storck

The best measure of the likelihood of human environmental destruction is not the number of people but how people consume and pollute.

A Just Society: It Cannot Be Drawn on a Balance Sheet

THE ENDURING WISDOM OF POPE PIUS IX

James K. Fitzpatrick

No matter what the Dow-Jones average is doing, “opportunities for work” must be “provided for those who are willing and able to work,” as Pius said.

Chastity as a Form of Economic Subversion

THE AMERICAN ECONOMY OF DESIRE

Christopher W. Decker

For a per­son with a strong social conscience, chastity is a ma­ture response to a great evil. It is a form of rebellion.

With the Down & Out in Waterbury

A CATHOLIC WORKER COMMUNITY IN THE BRASS VALLEY

Tom Cornell

Wendell Berry has writ­ten of "the real work of planet saving," that it will be "small, humble and humbling." Dorothy Day faced the problem "one small life at a time."

Anti-Capitalism on the Southern Horizon?

Arthur F. McGovern

Review of The Two Churches: Catholicism & Capitalism in the World System

Distributing America

BEYOND REAGANOMICS AND CLINTONOMICS

Thomas Storck

Is the economy supposed to serve man? Or are we to twist ourselves and our families to fit the impersonal demands of the economic juggernaut?

The Cathedral of Business

THE BARBARIZATION FROM WITHIN

Norman Lear

Where we drift as a culture is determined more by the decisions of corporate managers -- and the values that dictate their decisions -- than by any other single influ­ence.

On Michael Novak's Democratic Capitalism

ANALYZING THE MORAL DEFENSE OF FREE-MARKET CAPITALISM — PART III

Charles K. Wilber & Laura M. Grimes

Can the destructive side of the capitalist growth process be mitigated while doing minimal damage to the creative side?

On Brian Griffiths, Mrs. Thatcher's Christian Economic Advisor

ANALYZING THE MORAL DEFENSE OF FREE MARKET CAPITALISM — PART II

Charles K. Wilber & Laura M. Grimes

God requires us to use our financial goods for charity and not just selfish enjoyment, as stewards of what we have been given.

On Gary North, Texas Fundamentalist

ANALYZING THE MORAL DEFENSE OF FREE MARKET CAPITALISM — PART I

Charles K. Wilber & Laura M. Grimes

Many Christian defenders of free market capitalism make good points but ignore or gloss over important texts that point to its limitations.

A Case Study: Laying Off American Workers, Gouging Mexican Workers

PLANT RELOCATION VS. CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

James W. Donovan

The Importance of Catholic Social Teaching for Envisioning the Good Society

FOCUSING ON THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY

Robert N. Bellah

The Triumph of Capitalism — or the Rise of Market Totalitarianism?

THE COLONIZATION OF PERSONAL & SOCIAL LIFE

Robert N. Bellah

A great threat to our genuine happiness and to real community comes from market forces that become too coercive and invade our private and group lives.

Reflections on the Past & Future of Democratic Socialism

IN LIGHT OF THE CRUMBLING OF COMMUNISM

Irving Howe

The democratization of economic and social life is at the heart of the socialist idea today. The idea is simple, the techniques necessarily complex and difficult.

If Not Communism or Capitalism, What?

CHRIST AND NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Any ef­ficient democracy must operate on the princi­ple of subsidiarity, and this holds true in the economic as well as the political sphere.

Liberation Theology

John C. Cort

Review of Liberation Theology and Its Critics: Toward an Assess­ment, Liberation Theology: A Doc­umentary History, and Gustavo Gutierrez: An Intro­duction to Liberation Theology

The Gospel & Co-operatives

Christ and Neighbor

John C. Cort

Adventures of a Middle-Class Catholic Bag-Lady

THE HUMOR OF SIMPLICITY

Ronda Chervin

St. Francis of Assisi played a large role in my conversion from an atheistic, though Jewish, background. The ideal of poverty was firmly fixed in my imagination.

The Evolution of Liberation Theology

MOVING AWAY FROM MARXIST ANALYSIS

Arthur F. McGovern

The Underclass, Part VI: What Is to Be Done?

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Economics as if God Mattered

Stuart Gudowitz

Review of Ethics and the National Economy

Conspicuous Consumption & the Falling Rate of Enjoyment

ON THE VERTIGO OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Patrick Murray and Jeanne A. Schuler

Given an absence of time for imagining alternatives, our humanity is defined in terms of consumption. We lack the peace needed to cultivate ourselves as unique persons.

The Underclass, Part V: Children & Violence

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

We see kids on the street with guns and stacks of $100 bills. There’s no rule of law, no belief in anyone’s laws -- not man’s, not God’s.

The Underclass, Part IV: Schools & Mentors

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

One youth says, “I look at those teachers and their books, and I say: man, you’re out in space, and I’m where I am, and there’s nothing between us.”

The Underclass, Part III: Drugs

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

How else to think of drug use — by anyone, living anywhere — as but the most obvious evidence of nihilism, of despair?

The Underclass, Part II: Widespread Teenage Pregnancy

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Girls in the ghetto are hungry for love, and desperately afraid of not going along with the social, cultural, and sexual pressures of the street.

Why Socialists Should Drop Marx

DEMYTHOLOGIZING A GIANT

John C. Cort

Marx should neither remain a dominant theorist of the worldwide democratic socialist movement, nor the source of ideas, strategy, or analysis.

The So-Called Underclass, Part I

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Why don’t the “underclass” want to leave it? Is there, perhaps, some failure not of psychology or school experience but of the moral imagination?

The Obsolescence of Left & Right

ON THE EXHAUSTION OF THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

Christopher Lasch

The “crisis of modernity” remains unresolved by a “sham conservatism” that merely sanctions the unbridled pursuit of worldly success.

The Pope Confounds the Neoconservatives

Dale Vree

Review of Aspiring to Freedom: Commen­taries on John Paul II's Encycli­cal "The Social Concerns of the Church"

The Social Thought of Michael Novak: At Odds with the Principles of Catholic Social Thought

ANATOMY OF A CONSERVATIVE DISSENTER

John C. Cort

Shame on You, Harvard!

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Bodies for Sale: The Inhuman Face of Industrialism

GUEST COLUMN

Juli Loesch

Industry everywhere, East or West, wheth­er controlled by the state or market forces, has no veneration for the Presence of the Godhead in the soul of the worker.

Cafeteria Catholicism & the Pope's Encyclical

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

John Paul II's encyclical repeatedly stresses the fact that "the Church's social doctrine adopts a critical attitude towards both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism."

The Workers of Weirton Steel: Putting Catholic Social Teaching into Practice

A MODEL OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Pete Sheehan

Life in Consumer Catalogues (For Irina Ratushinskaya*)

GUEST COLUMN

Iris Rozencwajg

Symposium on Humane Socialism & Traditional Conservatism

AN ALLIANCE AGAINST ECONOMIC & CULTURAL "ME-ISM"?

Thomas Molnar, John B. Judis, John Lukacs, James G. Hanink, Sheldon Vanauken, Michael Lerner, Christopher Derrick, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Samuel Hux, Russell Kirk, John C. Cort, Juli Loesch, L. Brent Bozell, Robert Coles, Christopher Lasch

On Human Robots, Yuppies & the Meaning of Work in America

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SENSE OF "CALLING"?

Paul F. Scotchmer

American Conservatism’s Lost Soul

James J. Thompson Jr.

Review of The Search for Historical Meaning... The Capitalist Revolution... Conservatism... Alexis de Tocqueville... and Irving Babbitt in Our Time.

Did Novak Intimidate the Bishops?

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Implementing the Catholic Social Vision

Dale Vree

Review of A Preface to Economic Democracy by Robert A. Dahl

Ten Years & Still Rolling

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

Voluntary Poverty

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

The struggle toward voluntary poverty is a privilege and requires constant self-scrutiny, lest smugness and self-righteousness undo a decent and honorable effort.

A Victim of Spiritual Poverty

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

I know a successful businessman who is a victim of spiritual poverty, and some materially impoverished people I’ve met are spiritually affluent.

Heinrich Pesch & the Economics of Solidarism

NEITHER LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM NOR STATE SOCIALISM

Rupert J. Ederer

Pesch designed an economic system that is opposed to both liberal capitalism and state socialism and is based instead on Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophical premises.

Capitalist Self-Seeking or Christian Self-Denial?

“FREEDOM OR VIRTUE?”— REVISITED

L. Brent Bozell

Christ’s earthly work, and ours, will be done when crosses are no longer needed for the salvation of men — when the poor are no longer with us.

Short-Term Thinking & the Decline in Values

THE REWARDS OF PATIENT CAPITAL

Norman Lear

We are controlled by numerical systems run amok — creating lists and statistics, SAT scores and Nielsen ratings, Gallup and Harris polls, and the fearsome “bottom line.”

On “Liberation Theology”

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

A poor woman once told me that the Church “belongs” to her kind of people, not to them, the rich, the quite comfortable — appearances notwithstanding.

Base Communities

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The Vatican’s New Look at Liberation Theology

ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHRISTIAN TO THE WORLD

Russell Shaw

The Church has attempted to correct the excesses of radical liberation theology and that “dualistic” Christianity that views the Church as a fortress and calls on Christians to retreat within its walls.

Haiti: Discovering Wealth in Poverty

GUEST COLUMN

Gil Hedley

We are blind to the vast and real poverty of our own country, which may only become apparent upon encountering spiritual wealth.

A Critique of the Second Draft

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The people of the USA are unwilling to make the right to a job a top priority and to get up the money to pay for it, even though they can easily afford to do so.

Reinhold Niebuhr & Benigno Aquino

CHRISTIAN FAITH, HUMAN NATURE & DEMOCRACY

John C. Cort

Niebuhr believed that many of the values of democratic society, while highly prized in the West, are neither understood nor desired outside the West.

The Catholic Bishops & the Political Theory of Philanthropy

THE SECOND DRAFT OF THE PASTORAL ON THE ECONOMY

Dante Germino

Morality based on the opening of the soul expressed by the prophets of Israel, the mystic philosophers of Greece, and the authors of the Gospels defies all calculations of self-interest and promises joy.

Mother Teresa: Guided by Those She Guides

Robert Coles

Mother Teresa started as her own version of a street person, so to speak, and the vision she had was as simple as Christ’s vision has always been.

The Sanctity of Life & the Right to Adequate Health Care

DETERIORATING HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

John O’Connor

Infant mortality, life expectancy, and disability rates confirm that the poor and uninsured permanently suffer the consequences of our broken healthcare system.

Bad Things & Good People Revisited

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Vertical religion and horizontal religion are parts of an integral whole. You go up by going sideways, and you go best sideways by focusing upward.

Insatiable Love

Eileen Egan

Gandhi, after an early distaste for Christianity because of its relationship to imperialism and aggressive “soul-savers,” came to a deep identification with the message of Jesus.

Billy Graham to the Rescue?

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

I fantasize that some contemporary Nathan the Prophet might chat with the President, not about sins like adultery and murder but about social sins. I’m afraid a Catholic bishop would not be right for the part.

Jacques Maritain’s Friendship with Dorothy Day

MARITAIN’S INFLUENCE ON THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT

Bemard Doering

Maritain and Day were of one mind on the use of private property toward the common good, and their desire to “exist with the people.”

The Rough Edges of Socialism

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Contemporary socialism of the democratic, Western European form hasn’t yet eliminated all its sharp edges.

On the Bishops’ Draft Pastoral on the Economy & the Hostile Reactions to It

THE CENTRAL ISSUE IS MORALITY

Kenneth D. Whitehead

Conservatives' slogan “Mater, si! Magistra, no!” can on­ly mean that papal teachings don't count for much compared to their superior wisdom.

Is a Union Good or Bad?

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Don’t believe the talk that unions have had their day, that the trend from blue-collar to more white-collar and service jobs has spelled their doom in the U.S.

The Vatican Looks at Non-Marxist Socialism

WITH THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

Thomas Molnar

In its universal concern, the Church cannot be a mouthpiece for the West, even if, as a result, the Pope is accused of “misunderstanding the free-market economy.”

Physician, Heal Thyself

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

A curious schizophrenia afflicts the corporate body of American Cath­olic institutions when it comes to the question of how to deal with a trade union.

The Motherhood of the Church

Dale Vree

If the priest were to overcome the counter-stigmata of the man with clean hands, and the Church go beyond almsgiving, the priest would have to roll up his sleeves and get dirty.

Nicaragua & Neighborliness

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The U.S. could have weaned Nicaragua away from the Soviets by the exercise of a little good neighborliness and the avoidance of a large amount of international immorality.

The Truth About the A.C.T.U.

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The resistance of American workers to communist domination of their trade unions was based on something far more solid than anti-communist hysteria.

The Odyssey of an American Priest in Guatemala

INTERVIEW WITH FR. RON BURKE

Richard Bermack

My name was placed on a hit list; I was accused of being a communist. At the same time we were leafleted by guerrillas, who were attacking our stand on nonviolence.

Did the Bishops Strike Out in Pawtucket?

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

A real difficulty with the bishops’ pastoral letter on the U.S. economy is the ignorance and apathy of both laity and clergy.

Comments on the First Draft of “Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy”

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

The average Catholic will ask himself, “What can I and my parish do for economic justice? How should my spiritual life affect my social behavior and my habits of consumption?”

The Two Minds of Modern Conservatism

DEBATING THE ROLE OF VIRTUE IN SOCIETY

Steven Hayward

The ultimate pitfall of classical liberalism is the annihilation of morality and the destruction of meaningful community life.

The Vatican & Liberation Theology

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Liberation theologians, Catholic and Protestant but mostly Catholic, have been a major factor in struggling against poverty in Latin America.

Toward a More Christian Economy

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

America is ripe to accept the Christian-Catholic view of work and economics, once it fully learns to understand and appreciate it.

Ethical Reflections on the Economy

AGAINST SOCIAL DARWINISM

Canadian Bishops’ Commission

This statement was attacked by business leaders and the prime minister, and was the subject of a full-scale debate in the Canadian Parliament.

The Right to Unionize & Defense of the Poor

INDISPUTABLE PRINCIPLES

John J. O’Connor

The tradition of Catholic social teaching has roots in Abra­ham, Moses, the prophets, and in the very life and message of Jesus himself.

The Development of Social Doctrine

Dale Vree

A Chris­tian’s concern for the material well-being of his neighbors springs, properly, not from a flat secular­ist social-welfare mentality but from an authentic interior spirituality.

Economics & the Theology of Work

WORK AS A CALLING

Robert N. Bellah

When the worker is engaged in work that is to him intrinsically meaningless, then he is deprived of work in the deeper sense, even when he makes a living wage.

“Radical” Bishops

Dale Vree

The Church Fathers argue that the only justification for holding private property, beyond meeting one’s personal necessi­ties, is to give it away!

Price Markups & Moral Decline

John F. Maguire

The circulation of goods and ser­vices is a good. What is bad is the disorder that is introduced into this circulation by acts of injustice.

Considering the Lilies of the Field

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Jesus tells us to be anxious about others, and he promises that if we are anxious about others first, then we need not be anxious about ourselves, for all these things will be added unto us.

The Relevance of Riches & Poverty

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The question remains for us, how do we obey the precept, the commandment to share our superfluous goods with the poor?

Impressions of Nicaragua — Part II

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

In the well-to-do sections of Managua, the Pope’s picture may be seen displayed proudly on the doors of houses, in any number of windows.

Socrates on Communism & Capitalism

WHAT, THEN, IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Peter Kreeft

Socrates asks, What do you think would happen to a capitalist nation if everyone practiced the greedlessness of Jesus, or Buddha, or even Thoreau?

Impressions of Nicaragua — Part I

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Recently I went with two of my sons to Nica­ragua, where we spent time visiting schools, hospitals, clinics, a number of Managua’s barrio homes, and those of other cities.

A Christian View of Economic Virtue

PRIVATE PROPERTY, SÍ; THE FREE MARKET, NO

Stuart Gudowitz

Let us consider the free-market principle that competition should be the governing factor of the economic or­der.

Can a Political Conservative Be a Christian?

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

James J. Thompson Jr.

The Christian conservative must not subsume his religion under his politics and thereby pervert a timeless Gospel into an ideological weapon.

Samaritan Woman

A CHRISTMAS STORY

Carl R. Schmahl

“I suppose we better call an ambulance. The hospital’s gonna cry and moan, but it’s the best chance we got of getting this guy out of our hair."

Social Justice & Hell-Fire

FIFTY YEARS OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT

John C. Cort

The Works of Mercy originated in a hell-fire sermon that Jesus preached as a final summary of his teaching, a sermon reported in the 25th chapter of Matthew.