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From the Narthex

In this special section, which runs as an occasional feature, we present samples of the offerings in the Narthex, the NOR’s online blog.

The Right Ordering of Love in the Political Sphere

JOHN GRONDELSKI REPLIES

John M. Grondelski

When we move from the spiritual good of love to its material, concrete incarnation, we move into the realm of material goods that diminish by division.

Defending Dives, Defunding Lazarus

THE 'ORDO AMORIS': TWO PERSPECTIVES

John C. Médaille

J.D. Vance invoked St. Augustine and the 'ordo amoris' while discussing immigration issues, drawing great commentary from all sides and even a papal rebuke.

Rethinking Capitalism

Jerry D. Salyer

Catholic defenders of capitalism might argue it must be subjected to and bound by some higher authority rooted in religion, culture, or the natural law.

When Luxuries Become Necessities & Necessities Become Luxuries

PERVERSE OUTCOMES

Eric Brende

The affluent of today are likeliest to enjoy the pleasures of a yeoman of yore. This, perhaps more than anything now, sets apart the “haves” from the “have-nots.”

The Gospel of Greed

Barbara E. Rose

What began as a removal of religious questions from the public square morphed into a draining of religion and practically all virtue from Americans’ purview.

Meet the New Elites, Same as the Old Elites

John C. Médaille

The lesson of history is clear: You cannot change elites without changing the systems of property and production. This is an economic problem.

The Exalted & the Despised

CRAZED DISUNITY

Jason M. Morgan

Old categories of class, politics, and education have given way to a deep-down hatred for one another that traditional social sets can no longer begin to explain.

The Demise of the Parish Cemetery

THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANTI-SUBSIDIARITY IN THE CHURCH

John M. Grondelski

The Church is doing practically nothing to make people aware of legitimate green burial or to bring down the costs associated with the funeral industry.

Householding in Action

MAKING THE MOST OF THE POST-CAREER ERA — PART II

Eric Brende

The working household constitutes a specific physical locus intimate enough to be personal but capacious enough to be a haven from the vicissitudes of market forces.

The Return of the Householder

MAKING THE MOST OF THE POST-CAREER ERA — PART I

Eric Brende

Destiny is leading us to home-based arrangements reminiscent of those of yore, without brutish living conditions and foreshortened lifespans.

A Terrible Forgetting

ECONOMIC STRIVING CARRIES A GRAVE RISK

Pieter Vree

The greatest factors for maximizing religious commitment seem to be poverty and persecution, and for minimizing religious commitment: wealth and security.

An Afflicter of the Comfortable & a Comforter of the Afflicted

PETER CAROTA’S RADICAL WITNESS

Alvaro Delgado

Father Peter left a profound and enduring legacy as a pastor who knew the “smell of the sheep,” working with zeal and love on behalf of the poor.

What Is Integralism?

MOVING BEYOND LIBERALISM

Thomas Storck

As the liberal order embraces more and more insanity, Catholics are stopping to ask whether there was something wrong with the liberal project from the outset.

Can Government Solve Inequality?

Jason M. Morgan

A just economy is not the product of any ideology, capitalist or socialist or otherwise; it is a function of loving one’s neighbor.

Integralism: A New Totalitarianism?

WEATHER ADVISORY

Will Hoyt

The “third way” promoted by integralists features a mindset that can be every bit as anti-Christian as the mindset that governs cultural revolutionaries.

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?

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

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

Self-interest alone was said to be the building assumption of much of classical economics. But it was a narrow basis.

The Most Segregated Hour

DOES ECCLESIAL CONSUMERISM LEAD TO RACIAL DIVISION ?

Bryan Cross

Could the continued separation of Christians into like-minded, like-colored pockets, or "bubbles," be a factor in racial inequality, racial tension, and overall injustice?

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

"RUM, ROMANISM & REBELLION" — REVISITED

Dale Vree

What Catholicism offers is a consistent vision of Love, which is sacrifice, while the world offers dreams of money, power, and fast pleasure.

Are We Living in Georges Bernanos's Utilitarian Nightmare?

MECHANIZATION AS TOTALITARIANIZATION

John Lyon

His vision suggests that free men are those who resist machinery, overcome or subvert propaganda, believe in God, and act responsibly toward both past and present.

Making Sense of Papal Economics

Christopher Beiting

Communism was founded on false anthropology, reminds John Paul, and that was its undoing. Consumerism can be undone the same way.

The Most Pernicious Catholic Heresy

AS LARGE A MENACE NOW AS THEN

Kenneth Colston

Belloc saw Islam as a Catholic heresy, and a heresy is an evil. Like Calvinistic Protestantism, it overemphasizes the transcendence of God and His "immutable decrees."

Is Pope Francis a Socialist?

GUEST COLUMN

Steve Soukup

He has said that "sustainable human and social development" depends on "a generous and disinterested spirit of gratuitousness at every level."

New Names for Old Things

THOMAS STORCK REPLIES

Thomas Storck

When will the majority of Catholics finally learn that we cannot pick and choose among the Church's teachings, and that the political divisions of the world have no place in the household of God?

A Caricature of Charity

A PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR WHOM?

John A. Perricone

It could safely be said that the Catholic Church invented active care for the poor. After all, our salvation depends upon it (cf. Mt. 25:31-46).

Can Free-Market Principles Reverse America's Decline?

David J. Peterson

Gregg recommends a return to personal initiative and individual self-interest, which he contends is a central and fundamental strength of the American tradition.

The Modern-Day Little Shop of Horrors

DEHUMANIZATION AT A PROFIT

Judie Brown

In the "reproductive health industry," moral questions are rarely considered when there is money to be made.

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 possession of great riches, though not to be condemned in itself, nevertheless presents grave difficulties to the soul that seeks perfection.

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

We must try to understand the rich corpus of Catholic social doctrine in its context and entirety by reading and consulting the original documents.

Dives the Tax-Evader

GUEST COLUMN

Angus Sibley

Around the world, the struggle continues against economic theories that generate and tolerate excessive inequalities.

The Background to ‘Rerum Novarum’

Thomas Storck

European Catholics grew aware of the need for an effective response to the conditions created by capitalism and industrialism during the 19th century.

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.

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."

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 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.

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.

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

My colleague suggested, "Some people believe human life is priceless." The government expert replied, "We have no data on that."

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: Can It Shake Its Affinity for Marxism?

John C. Cort

What saints and Doctors of the Church have written is far more useful than anything written by Karl Marx in per­suading Christians to adopt a critical attitude toward capital­ism.

The Evolution of Liberation Theology

MOVING AWAY FROM MARXIST ANALYSIS

Arthur F. McGovern

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 Gospel & Co-operatives

Christ and Neighbor

John C. Cort

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

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

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.

Economics as if God Mattered

Stuart Gudowitz

Review of Ethics and the National Economy

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

He dissents from a basic moral principle of Judeo-Christian, Catholic social teach­ing: that superfluous wealth must be shared with the poor.

Shame on You, Harvard!

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Law professor Derek Bok was suddenly raised to the pinnacle of a Harvard presidency and subsequently suffered a loss of idealism.

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."

Feeling Good About Greed?

CHRIST AND NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Can Wall Street, Washington, the White House, Congress, Big Business, Big Labor, or any of us be just for any extended period of time without fear of God?

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"?

With contributions by 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, and 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

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.

Ten Years & Still Rolling

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

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 is probably the greatest-ever economist. He designed an economic system based 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Unionism is sim­ply the principle that human beings working to­gether may derive benefits from banding together in an organization, on the basis that “in union there is strength.”

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

A good mother teaches her children but knows that her teaching will not be well received if she does not also love her children with a vigorous and gen­erous love.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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 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.

Socrates on Communism & Capitalism

WHAT, THEN, IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Peter Kreeft

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

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.

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 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

The tall officer looked at his partner and rais­ed an eyebrow, “You know him ma’am? He a friend of yours?” His partner caught the emphasis on the word “friend” and winced.

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.