442. Capitalism

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 442

Ave Maria series

What is the Church’s stance on capitalism or the free-market economy?

Any form of capitalism that is not embedded in an established system of law runs the risk of detaching itself from the common good and becoming a mere means for individuals to make profits.  The Church rejects that decisively.  On the other hand, she supports a free-market system which is at the service of man, prevents monopolies, and ensures that all are supplied with employment and vitally necessary goods.  [2426]

A logging spill awaits entanglement.  In Wisconsin’s early history, intensive cutting of old growth forests was a race between industry and local governments.  The former sought to cut and ship forest products quickly to minimize property tax liability and maximize profit. Local governments were anxious to exploit the forest resource to gain revenue to build bridges and monumental court houses. Great family fortunes were being made. All this without regard to worker safety or the effect on the land and its animals due to drastic habitat change. Forest fires later raced through the dry slash left behind....... 442

Catholic social teaching evaluates all societal arrangements according to whether they serve the common good, which means: to the extent that they enable “men, families, and associations more adequately and readily (to) attain their own perfection.” (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes).  This is also true of commerce, which in the first place should be at the service of man.

 “Capitalism without humanity, solidarity, and justice has no morals and no future either.”  --Reinhard Cardinal Marx (b. 1953; Archbishop of Munich and Freising)

“Locating resources, financing, production, consumption, and all the other phases in the economic cycle inevitably have moral implications.  Thus every economic decision has a moral consequence.”  --Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (detailed reflections on economic and social issues)

[2426]

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

2426 The development of economic activity and growth in production are meant to provide for the needs of human beings. Economic life is not meant solely to multiply goods produced and increase profit or power; it is ordered first of all to the service of persons, of the whole man, and of the entire human community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social justice so as to correspond to God's plan for man. --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Nature Forestry  logging jam