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Pope John Paul II on Economic Freedom.
While John Paul II may go down in history as the pope who helped end communism, his scholarship was significant as well. In particular, his seminal work on economics, the encyclical Centesimus Annus, is worth looking at.

Here are some excerpts of that teaching, which is about anthropology and theology as much as it is economics. The arabic numbers reflect the paragraph numbers of the original.

It is best to think of this as a compilation of discrete thoughts, since as a whole it may not flow very well. In addition, the text has been strongly edited, taking the first few words of one sentence and then skipping to the end of a sentence four sentences away, skipping three in between. Some sentences that appear to be a single sentence may have been two or three in the original. Still, the excerpting was done with a desire to not distort the meaning of the original.

The watchword of the blogosphere applies--"read the whole thing." But since the whole thing is rouhgly 50 pages (12 point font), few people will actually do that. In this case, excerpts are better than nothing.

4. Toward the end of the last century the labor became a commodity to be freely bought and sold on the market, its price determined by the law of supply and demand without taking into account the bare minimum required for the support of the individual and his family.

The prevailing political theory of the time sought to promote total economic freedom by appropriate laws or, conversely, by a deliberate lack of any intervention.

5. The pope and the church with him were confronted, as was the civil community, by a society which was torn by a conflict � between capital and labor.

As in the days of Pope Leo XIII � ideologies are being increasingly discredited. Now, as then, we need to repeat that there can be no genuine solution of the "social question" apart from the Gospel �

7. � Pope Leo XIII's encyclical also affirms � is the "natural human right" to form � trade unions: � because the right of association is a natural right of the human being.

� The encyclical affirms � the right to legitimate rest, and the right of children and women [21] to be treated differently with regard to the type and duration of the work.

8. The pope immediately adds � the right to a "just wage," which cannot be left to the "free consent of the parties � A workman's wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children.

9. Pope Leo � affirms the need for Sunday rest so that people may turn their thoughts to heavenly things and to the worship which they owe to almighty God.

One may ask whether existing laws and the practice of industrialized societies effectively ensure in our own day the exercise of this basic right to Sunday rest.

10�. Rerum Novarum" criticizes � socialism and liberalism. � � . The richer class has many ways of shielding itself and stands less in need of help from the state whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back on and must chiefly depend on the assistance of the state. It is for this reason that wage earners, since they mostly belong to the latter class, should be specially cared for and protected by the government." [33]

What we nowadays call the principle of solidarity � is � one of the fundamental principles of the Christian view of social and political organization.

11. � Pope Leo's encyclical on the "condition of the workers" is � on the poor and on the terrible conditions to which the new and often violent process of industrialization had reduced great multitudes of people. Today in many parts of the world similar processes of economic, social and political transformation are creating the same evils.

This should not however lead us to think that Pope Leo expected the state to solve every social problem. � inasmuch as the individual, the family and society are prior to the state and inasmuch as the state exists in order to protect their rights and not stifle them. [37]

Beyond the rights which man acquires by his own work, there exist rights which � flow from his essential dignity as person.

CHAPTER 2
Toward the "New Things" of Today

12. Socialism is � a solution which, by appearing to reverse the positions of the poor and the rich, was in reality detrimental to the very people whom it was meant to help. The remedy would prove worse than the sickness. By defining the nature of the socialism of his day as the suppression of private property, Leo XIII arrived at the crux of the problem.

13. The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socioeconomic mechanism.

In contrast, from the Christian vision � the social nature of man is not completely fulfilled in the state, but is realized in various intermediary groups, beginning with � family and including economic, social, political and culture groups which stem from human nature itself and [which] have their own autonomy,�

14. The pope does not� intend to condemn every possible form of social conflict. � what is condemned in class struggle is the idea that conflict is not restrained by ethical or juridical considerations or by respect for the dignity of others �

Therefore class struggle in the Marxist sense and militarism have the same root, namely atheism and contempt for the human person, which place the principle of force above that of reason and law.

15. "Rerum Novarum" is opposed to state control of the means of production, which would reduce every citizen to being a "cog" in the state machine. It is no less forceful in criticizing a concept of the state which completely excludes the economic sector from the state's range of interest and action. There is certainly a legitimate sphere of autonomy in economic life which the state should not enter. The state, however, has the task of determining the juridical framework within which economic affairs are to be conducted and thus of safeguarding the prerequisites of a free economy, which presumes a certain equality between the parties such that one party would not be so powerful as practically to reduce the other to subservience. [43]

Just reforms can restore dignity to work as the free activity of man. � protecting the worker from the nightmare of unemployment. � either through economic policies aimed at ensuring balanced growth and full employment or through unemployment insurance and retraining programs �

Furthermore, society and the state must ensure wage levels adequate for the maintenance of the worker and his family, including a certain amount for savings. This requires a continuous effort to improve workers' training and capability so that their work will be more skilled and productive, as well as careful controls and adequate legislative measures to block shameful forms of exploitation, especially to the disadvantage of the most vulnerable workers, of immigrants and of those on the margins of society. The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive in this area.

Finally, "humane" working hours and adequate free time need to be guaranteed as well.

The state must contribute � by creating favorable conditions for the free exercise of economic activity � � by defending the weakest by placing certain limits on the autonomy of the parties who determine working conditions and by ensuring in every case the necessary minimum support for the unemployed worker. [45]

The encyclical� influence is evident in � social security, pensions, health insurance and compensation in the case of accidents �

16. � the workers' movement � began as a response of moral conscience to unjust and harmful situations, � its efforts were often joined to those of Christians �.. Later on this movement was dominated to a certain extent by the Marxist ideology �

17. Pope Leo's whole magisterium � points � to � an error [of] an understanding of human freedom which detaches it from obedience to the truth and consequently from the duty to respect the rights of others.

However, it is only when hatred and injustice are sanctioned and organized by the ideologies based on them, rather than on the truth about man, that they take possession of entire nations and drive them to act. [World War II reference]

18. � For many years there has been in Europe and the world a situation of nonwar rather than genuine peace. [It was bad.]

An insane arms race swallowed up the resources needed for the development of national economies � Scientific and technological progress � was transformed into an instrument of war: Science and technology were directed to the production of ever more efficient and destructive weapons. Meanwhile, an ideology � provide[d] doctrinal justification for the new war.

The logic of power blocs or empires � led to a situation in which controversies and disagreements among Third World countries were systematically aggravated and exploited in order to create difficulties for the adversary.

The concepts of "total war" and "class struggle" must necessarily be called into question.

19. World War II, � should have reestablished freedom and restored the rights of nations, [but] ended without having attained these goals.

Following the destruction caused by the war, we see in some countries and under certain aspects a positive effort to rebuild a democratic society inspired by social justice, so as to deprive communism of the revolutionary �.

[Social democracy makes]� such attempts ... to preserve free-market mechanisms, .. [but also] try to avoid making market mechanisms the only point of reference for social life, and they tend to subject them to public control �

Other social forces and ideological movements � [are] emphasizing and increasing the power of the state[;], they wish to protect their people from communism, but in doing so they run the grave risk of destroying the freedom and values of the person, the very things for whose sake it is necessary to oppose communism.

The affluent society �. seeks to defeat Marxism � by showing how a free-market society can achieve a greater satisfaction of material human needs than communism, while equally excluding spiritual values. �. In reality � it agrees with Marxism in the sense that it totally reduces man to the sphere of economics and the satisfaction of material needs.

20. During the same period, a widespread process of "decolonization" occurred � however � decisive sectors of the economy still remain de facto in the hands of large foreign companies � Political life itself is controlled by foreign powers, while � tribal groups not yet amalgamated into a genuine national community. Also lacking is a class of competent professional people capable of running the state �

Given this situation, many think that Marxism can offer a sort of shortcut for building up the nation and the state �

The overall balance of the various policies of aid for development has not always been positive.

The United Nations, � has not yet succeeded in establishing as alternatives to war effective means for the resolution of international conflicts..

CHAPTER 3
The Year 1989

23. Among the many factors involved in the fall of oppressive regimes � was the violation of the rights of workers. � It was the throngs of working people which forswore the ideology which presumed to speak in their name.

The fall of this kind of "bloc" or empire was accomplished almost everywhere by � peaceful protest, using only the weapons of truth and justice. �. appealing to the conscience of the adversary and seeking to reawaken in him a sense of shared human dignity.

24. The second factor in the crisis was certainly the inefficiency of the economic system, which is � a consequence of the violation of the human rights to provide initiative, to ownership of property and to freedom in the economic sector.

It is not possible to understand man on the basis of economics alone �
� At the heart of every culture lies the attitude man takes to � God. Different cultures are basically different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. When this question is eliminated, the culture and moral life of nations are corrupted. For this reason the struggle to defend work was spontaneously linked to the struggle for culture and for national rights.

But the true cause of the new development was the spiritual void brought about by atheism.

25. The events of 1989 are an example of the success of willingness to negotiate and of the gospel spirit in the face of an adversary determined not to be bound by moral principles.

Not only is it wrong from the ethical point of view to disregard human nature, which is made for freedom, but in practice it is impossible to do so. Where society is so organized as to reduce arbitrarily or even suppress the sphere in which freedom is legitimately exercised, the result is that the life of society becomes progressively disorganized and goes into decline.

Moreover, man, � bears within himself the wound of original sin � The social order will be all the more stable, the more it takes this fact into account and � bring [personal interests and societal interests] into fruitful harmony. � Where self-interest is violently suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control which dries up the wellsprings of initiative and creativity.

When people think they possess the secret of a perfect social organization which makes evil impossible, they also think that they can use any means, including violence and deceit �

Politics then becomes a "secular religion" which operates under the illusion of creating paradise in this world. But no political society � -- can ever be confused with the kingdom of God.

26. The events of 1989 � have worldwide importance. [One consequence has been] an encounter � between the church and the workers' movement, � came about as a result of an � explicitly Christian reaction against a � injustice. � In the crisis of Marxism, the � workers have re-emerged in a demand for justice � in conformity with � of the church. [57]

The sincere desire to be on the side of the oppressed and not be cut off from the course of history has led many believers to seek in various ways an impossible compromise between Marxism and Christianity.

27. The second consequence concerns the peoples of Europe themselves. � Many � injustices were committed during � communism �.

What is needed are concrete steps � capable of .. appropriate arbitration

For a long time the most elementary economic relationships were distorted, and basic virtues of economic life, such as truthfulness, trustworthiness and hard work were denigrated. A patient material and moral reconstruction is needed �

28. It is right that in the present difficulties the formerly communist countries should be aided by the united effort of other nations.

it .. corresponds to the interest and welfare of Europe as a whole,

This need, however, must not lead to a slackening of efforts to sustain and assist the countries of the Third World �. Enormous resources can be made available by disarming �

But it will be necessary above all to abandon a mentality in which the poor -- as individuals and peoples -- are considered a burden � [They] ask for the right to share in enjoying material goods and to make good use of their capacity for work,

29. Finally, � The apex of development is the exercise of the right and duty to seek God � The recognition of these rights represents the primary foundation of every authentically free political order. [63] It is important to reaffirm this latter principle for several reasons:

a) Because the old forms of totalitarianism and authoritarianism are not yet completely vanquished

b) Because in the developed countries there is �an excessive promotion of � immediate gratification,.

c) Because �forms of religious fundamentalism �deny to citizens of faiths other than that of the majority the full exercise of their civil and religious rights�.

CHAPTER 4

Private Property and the Universal Destination of Human Goods

30. Leo XIII strongly affirmed �. the right to private property � [But] the church teaches that the possession of material goods is not an absolute right �

The "use" of goods, while marked by freedom, is subordinated to their original common destination as created goods, as well as to the will of Jesus Christ �

"In making use of the exterior things we lawfully possess, we ought to regard them not just as our own but also as common, in the sense that they can profit not only the owners but others too";

31. God � gave the earth to man � But the earth does not yield its fruits without .. work.

Work becomes ever more fruitful and productive to the extent that people become more knowledgeable of the productive potentialities of the earth and more profoundly cognizant of the needs of those for whom their work is done.

32. In our time, � there exists another form of ownership � .: know-how, technology and skill. The wealth of the industrialized nations is based much more on this kind of ownership than on natural resources.

A person who produces something � does so .. that others may use it after they have paid a just price, mutually agreed upon � The ability to foresee both the needs of others and the [means of] satisfying those needs that constitutes another important source of wealth in modern society. � A source of wealth in today's society � [is] initiative and entrepreneurial ability � [70]

Besides the earth, man's principal resource is man himself. � His intelligence � His disciplined work in close collaboration with others � Important virtues are involved � such as diligence, industriousness, prudence in undertaking reasonable risks, reliability and fidelity in interpersonal relationships, as well as courage in carrying out decisions which are difficult and painful but necessary �.

The modern business economy has positive aspects. Its basis is human freedom exercised in the economic field �. Whereas at one time the decisive factor of production was the land, and later capital � today the decisive factor is increasingly man himself, that is, his knowledge, especially his scientific knowledge, his capacity for interrelated and compact organization, as well as his ability to perceive the needs of others and to satisfy them.

33. Many people � do not have the means � to take their place � within a productive system. They have no possibility of acquiring � knowledge � They have no way of entering the network of knowledge � They are � marginalized; economic development takes place over their heads. � Sometimes there are even attempts to eliminate them through [coercive family planning and abortion.]

Many other people � for a bare minimum �. In fact, for the poor, to the lack of material goods has been added a lack of knowledge and training which prevents them from escaping their state of humiliating subjection.

Unfortunately, the great majority of people in the Third World still live in such conditions.

Even in recent years it was thought that the poorest countries would develop by isolating themselves from the world market and by depending only on their own resources. Recent experience has shown that countries which did this have suffered stagnation and recession

However, � in developed countries, � Those who fail to keep up with the times can easily be marginalized �

34. the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to [some] needs. But � there are many human needs which find no place on the market.

In Third World contexts, certain objectives stated by "Rerum Novarum" remain valid � [including] a sufficient wage for the support of the family, social insurance � and adequate protection for the conditions of employment.

35. We find a wide range of opportunities for � trade unions �

The church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. � But � it is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people � to be humiliated and their dignity offended. � Human and moral factors must � be considered which, in the long term, are at least equally important for the life of a business.

We have seen that it is unacceptable to say that � capitalism [is] the only model of economic organization. It is necessary to break down the barriers and monopolies which leave so many countries on the margins of development � [Weaker] nations � must learn [make] the necessary efforts � by ensuring political and economic stability, the certainty of better prospects for the future, the improvement of workers' skills, and the training of competent business leaders

The principle that debts must be paid is certainly just. However, � the debts which have been contracted should [not] be paid at the price of unbearable sacrifices.

36. Today the problem is not � of supplying people with a sufficient quantity of goods; but also of responding to a demand for quality

It is here that the phenomenon of consumerism arises. � Of itself, an economic system does not possess criteria for correctly distinguishing �. artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality. Thus a great deal of educational and cultural work is urgently needed, including � intervention by public authorities. [But who decides? Authorities? Yes--drugs, pornography �and other forms of consumerism which exploit the frailty of the weak.�]

What is wrong is a style of life � which .. more � as an end in itself. [75]
{Economic activity - apart from a realization of a responsibility to God - promotes an abuse of the earth and deprives future generations}.
37. In his desire to have and to enjoy � man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way. [I think JP is drinking too deeply from the well of the �limited earth� way of thinking.]

38. In addition to the irrational destruction of the natural environment, we must also mention � the serious problems of modern urbanization, of the need for urban planning which is concerned with how people are to live, and of the attention which should be given to a "social ecology" of work. [Social structures can constrain people.]

39. The first and fundamental structure for "human ecology" is the family � founded on marriage, in which �children can be born and develop their potentialities. But � people to consider children as one of the many "things" which an individual can have or not have, according to taste, and which compete with other possibilities.

It is necessary to go back to seeing � as � the gift of God -- can be properly welcomed and protected.

The encyclical "Sollicitudo Rei Socialis" denounced systematic anti-childbearing campaigns which� are extending their field of action by the use of new techniques.

If � the production and consumption of goods become the center of social life and society's only value � the reason is to be found not so much in the economic system itself as in the fact that the entire sociocultural system, by ignoring the ethical and religious dimension, has been weakened, and ends by limiting itself to the production of goods and services alone. [79]

All of this can be summed up by repeating once more that economic freedom is only one element of human freedom. When it becomes autonomous� economic freedom � ends up by alienating and oppressing him. [80]

40. Here we find a new limit on the market: there are collective and qualitative needs which cannot be satisfied by market mechanisms. There are important human needs which escape its logic. There are goods which by their very nature cannot and must not be bought or sold. Certainly the mechanisms of the market offer secure advantages: they help to utilize resources better; they promote the exchange of products; above all they give central place to the person's desires and preferences, which, in a contract, meet the desires and preferences of another person. Nevertheless, these mechanisms carry the risk of an "idolatry" of the market �

41. Marxism criticized capitalist bourgeois societies, blaming them for the commercialization and alienation of human existence. � However � collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.

Nevertheless alienation -- and the loss of the authentic meaning of life -- is a reality in Western societies too. This happens in consumerism, � Alienation is found also in work, when it is organizing so as to ensure maximum returns and profits with no concern [for] the worker �

A man is alienated if he refuses to transcend himself and to live the experience of self-giving and of the formation of an authentic human community oriented toward his final destiny, which is God. A society is alienated if its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer this gift of self and to establish this solidarity between people.

42. Can it perhaps be said that � capitalism should be the goal of � the Third World?

If by "capitalism" is meant the economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and � free human creativity � then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a � "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.

The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, � as � human alienation ..

The collapse of the communist system in so many countries certainly removes an obstacle to facing these problems � [But] there is a risk that a radical capitalistic ideology could spread which refuses even to consider these [moral and social] problems, in the "a priori" belief that � blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market forces.

43. A business cannot be considered only as a "society of capital goods"; it is also a "society of persons" in which people participate in different ways � There is still need for a broad associated workers' movement, directed toward the liberation and promotion of the whole person.

The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace. [88] Just as the person fully realizes himself in the free gift of self, so too ownership morally justifies itself in the creation, at the proper time and in the proper way, of opportunities for work and human growth for all.

CHAPTER 5

State and Culture

44. Pope Leo XIII � presents the organization of society according to the three powers -- legislative, executive and judicial � Such an ordering reflects a realistic vision of � protecting the freedom of all. � It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the "rule of law," in which the law is sovereign, and not the arbitrary will of individuals.

In modern times, this concept has been opposed by totalitarianism, which in its Marxist-Leninist form, maintains that some people, by virtue of a deeper knowledge of the laws of the development of society, or through membership of a particular class or through contact with the deeper sources of the collective consciousness, are exempt from error and can therefore arrogate to themselves the exercise of absolute power. It must be added that totalitarianism arises out of a denial of truth in the objective sense.

45. Totalitarianism � involve a rejection of the church. The state or the party which claims to be able to lead history toward perfect goodness, and which sets itself above all values, cannot tolerate the affirmation of an objective criterion of good and evil beyond the will of those in power, since such a criterion, in given circumstances, could be used to judge their actions.

46. The church values the democratic system � as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility .. of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.

Authentic democracy is possible only in a state ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person.

Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and skeptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. [But] � As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.

Nor does the church close her eyes to the danger of fanaticism or fundamentalism among those who � claim the right to impose on others their own concept of what is true and good. Christian truth is not of this kind.

47. Following the collapse of communist ... regimes, it is necessary � to give democracy an authentic and solid foundation through the explicit recognition of those rights. [96] Among � these rights, � the right to life, �. the right to share in � work, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself �; and the right freely to establish a family�.. In a certain sense, the source and synthesis of these rights is religious freedom, understood as the right to live in the truth of one's faith and in conformity with one's transcendent dignity as a person. [97]

Even in countries with democratic forms of government, these rights are not always fully respected. Here we are referring not only to the scandal of abortion �. Democracies themselves � seem at times to have lost the ability to make decisions aimed at the common good. �

The church respects the legitimate autonomy of the democratic order and is not entitled to express preferences for this or that institutional or constitutional solution.

48.. Economic activity � [in] � a market economy� presupposes guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security�.

The state could not directly ensure the right to work for all its citizens unless it controlled every aspect of economic life and restricted the free initiative of individuals. �. Rather, the state has a duty to sustain business activities by creating conditions which will ensure job opportunities, by stimulating those activities where they are lacking or by supporting them in moments of crisis.

The state has the further right to intervene when particular monopolies create delays or obstacles to development.

In addition � in exceptional circumstances the state can also exercise a substitute function, when social sectors or business systems are too weak � Such supplementary interventions, � must be as brief as possible, so as to avoid removing permanently from society and business systems the functions which are properly theirs.

In recent years the range of such intervention has vastly expanded, to the point of creating a new type of state, the so- called "welfare state." � Excesses and abuses � have provoked very harsh criticisms of the welfare state, dubbed the "social assistance state." Malfunctions and defects in the social assistance state are the result of an inadequate understanding of � subsidiarity �

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the social assistance state leads to � an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.

Certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need. One thinks of the condition of refugees, immigrants, the elderly, the sick and � drug abusers

49. �The church has always been present and active among the needy, offering them material assistance �

To overcome today's widespread individualistic mentality, what is required is a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity, beginning in the family

Apart from the family, other intermediate communities exercise primary functions and give life to specific networks of solidarity. � The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the state and the marketplace. � People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the state as its final purpose,

50. �Evangelization too plays a role in the culture of the various nations, sustaining culture in its progress toward the truth, and assisting in the work of its purification and enrichment.

51. The way in which he is involved in building his own future depends on the understanding he has of himself and of his own destiny. It is on this level that the church's specific and decisive contribution to true culture is to be found.

52. Just as the time has finally come when in individual states a system of private vendetta and reprisal has given way to the rule of law, so too a similar step forward is now urgently needed in the international community. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that at the root of war there are usually real and serious grievances:

For this reason, another name for peace is development. [105] Just as there is a collective responsibility for avoiding war, so too there is a collective responsibility for promoting development.

This may mean � enabling every individual and all the peoples of the earth to have a sufficient share of those resources.

Labels: Economic freedom, Health care

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