The Vatican — Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System

The latest in Catholic social teaching. 

Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical letter Rerum novarum*, which advocated economic distributism while criticizing both socialism and capitalism (though not market economics per se). Its roots can be traced to the writings of Catholic thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo, and is also derived from concepts present in the Bible and the cultures of the ancient Near East.— Wikipedia 

While not well-known in economic circles, Catholic social teaching is a "third way" between capitalism and socialism that attempts to integrate freedom with reason in a way that recognizes the value of the individuals along with their social embeddedness, viewing economic liberalism as exaggerating the former and the socialism as overvaluing the collective.

This is the latest iteration.

The Vatican
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Dicastery For Promoting Integral Human Development
Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones

Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System

* "Rerum novarum" is Latin, phrase meaning "new things." Idiomatically, it signifies "revolution."

Nathan Schneider — How Pope Francis Is Reviving Radical Catholic Economics

Weekend reading.

No one can accept the precepts of neoliberalism and consider themselves Christian,” he wrote in his days as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. As pope, he puts the matter more directly: “Such an economy kills.” In Laudato si’, he regards the environmental crisis as an economic-justice crisis as well: “The same mind-set which stands in the way of making radical decisions to reverse the trend of global warming also stands in the way of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty.”…

So does the pope’s assault on the economic order represent continuity, or an actual break? Has the content of faith changed, or just its emphases? And how much can (or will) Francis really do?…

There’s no comprehensive school of economics to describe all this. One attempt, championed by G.K. ­Chesterton and others a century ago, was dubbed “distributism.”Italian economist Stefano Zamagni, a leading contributor to the economic teaching of Benedict XVI, tells me the reading lists at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences have lately included Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel Prize–winning theorist of the commons. Rather than the market or the state per se, Catholic economics often attends to those common treasures in between that we manage for ourselves.

Zamagni belongs to the school of “civil economics,” which regards the notions of a utility-maximizing Homo economicus and an impersonal “invisible hand” ruling the market as impoverished visions of economic life. “If all you do is increase growth, you destroy social relations, family relations, and the environment,” he says. Civil economics, by contrast, seeks to evaluate companies according to more humane metrics than just profit and loss, and to identify ways that people can shape the economy with their values.

Zamagni belongs to the school of “civil economics,” which regards the notions of a utility-maximizing Homo economicus and an impersonal “invisible hand” ruling the market as impoverished visions of economic life. “If all you do is increase growth, you destroy social relations, family relations, and the environment,” he says. Civil economics, by contrast, seeks to evaluate companies according to more humane metrics than just profit and loss, and to identify ways that people can shape the economy with their values.…

In an address to members of Italian cooperatives last February, Francis championed what he called “an authentic, true cooperative…where capital does not have command over men, but men over capital.”….

Laudato si’ was drafted by a cardinal from Ghana and cites bishops’ conferences from all over the world. It calls for international institutions to address the climate crisis and for governments to act. But mainly it calls for a widespread conversion to local economic resistance, following the lead of the poorest and most vulnerable.

The Nation
How Pope Francis Is Reviving Radical Catholic Economics
Nathan Schneider

Cindy Wooden — About that hammer-and-sickle crucifix presented to Pope Francis in Bolivia

When Bolivian President Evo Morales gave Pope Francis a crucifix atop a hammer and sickle, eyebrows were raised, including the pope’s. 

But, as Morales explained, the cross was created by Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980 after being active in the country’s pro-democracy movement.

Note: Pope Francis is a Jesuit.

The Dialog
About that hammer-and-sickle crucifix presented to Pope Francis in Bolivia
Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service
ht Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism

Edward Martin And Mateo Pimentel — The Inadequacies of Liberalism: The Centrality of Socio-Economic rights for Marxism and the Catholic Social Justice Tradition

Weekend reading.

Counterpunch
The Inadequacies of Liberalism – The Centrality of Socio-Economic rights for Marxism and the Catholic Social Justice Tradition
Edward Martin And Mateo Pimentel

Edward Martin is Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Long Beach, and co-author of Savage State: Welfare Capitalism and Inequality.

Mateo Pimentel lives on the Mexican-US border. You can follow him on Twitter @mateo_pimentel, or read more at www.guerrillaprose.info.

Paul B. Farrell — Pope Francis’s new ‘Climate Change Encyclical’ sneak preview

8 talking points GOP Congress, Big Oil, Wall Street don’t want to hear

MarketWatch
Opinion: Pope Francis’s new ‘Climate Change Encyclical’ sneak preview

Paul B. Farrell

James Mackenzie — Pope Francis attacks ‘throw-away’ economic globalization

Pope Francis launched a fresh attack on economic injustice on Saturday, condemning the “throw-away culture” of globalization and calling for new ways of thinking about poverty, welfare, employment and society. 

In a speech to the association of Italian cooperative movements, he pointed to the “dizzying rise in unemployment” and the problems that existing welfare systems had in meeting healthcare needs. 

For those living “at the existential margins” the current social and political system “seems fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats,” he said.
The Argentinian-born pope, who has often criticized orthodox market economics for fostering unfairness and inequality, said people were forced to work long hours, sometimes in the black economy, for a few hundred euros a month because they were seen as easily replaceable. 

“‘You don’t like it? Go home then’. What can you do in a world that works like this? Because there’s a queue of people looking for work. If you don’t like it, someone else will,” he said in an unscripted change from the text of his speech. 

“It’s hunger, hunger that makes us accept what they give us,” he said..

“When money becomes an idol, it commands the choices of man. And thus it ruins man and condemns him. It makes him a slave,” he said. 

“Money at the service of life can be managed in the right way by cooperatives, on condition that it is a real cooperative where capital does not have command over men but men over capital,” he said [addressing the cooperative movement].

One America News Network
Pope Francis attacks ‘throw-away’ economic globalization

James Mackenzie

Susan Rakoczy — The best kept secret of the Catholic Church—its social teachings

Papal encyclicals and letters on social justice and social teaching began with Rerum Novarum (1891). The Latin term rerum novarum, literally new things, signifies revolution. It was the Church's answer to revolutionary Marxism. 

This teaching was continued and expanded in Quadragesimo Anno, Pacem in Terris, Mater et Magister, Populorum Progressio, Mulieres Dignitatem, Laborem Excercens, Centisimus Annus, Caritas in Veritate, and Evangelii Gaudium. Pope Francis is presently working on an encyclical on ecology.

The response from Catholics to these developments has been mixed. Surveys of young Catholics indicate that “many young adults are inspired by Catholic social teaching, affirming that this is the dimension of church doctrine with which they must clearly identify.” The adult education program “Just Faith” has helped Catholics to become familiar with new thinking, but conservatives often take exception to any criticism of capitalism and growing inequality. For them, the Church’s teachings on economic justice are not ‘good news.’

Open Democracy
The best kept secret of the Catholic Church—its social teachings
Susan Rakoczy | Professor of Spirituality at St. Joseph’s Theological Institute and the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

It's not just the Church's social teaching that is its "best kept secret." This is also the case with its mystical tradition, and many of the greatest mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Madame Guyon, are still treated as heretics. This is quite different in the Orthodox tradition. For example, the tradition of the spiritual teacher is alive and well in Eastern Orthodoxy. In the Russian Orthodox Church, spiritual teachers are generally monks recognized as being of high spiritual caliber. The Russian word is staretz, similar to guru, lama and roshi in other Eastern traditions.

OAN — Pope calls for more market regulation, denies he is Marxist: paper

Pope Francis has called for more regulation of financial markets and rejected suggestions that his criticisms of unbridled capitalism smack of Marxism. 

“Markets and financial speculation cannot enjoy absolute autonomy,” he said in an interview published in La Stampa newspaper on Sunday, calling for greater ethics in the economy and a better distribution of the earth’s resources. 

“We cannot wait any longer to resolve the structural causes of poverty in order to cure our society of an illness that can only lead to new crises,” he said. 

Conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, have criticized some of his past pronouncements on the economy, with several openly calling him a Marxist. But the Argentine pope said he was just stating Church teachings. 

“If I repeat some sermons by the first fathers of the Church in the second or third centuries about how the poor must be treated, some would accuse me of preaching a Marxist homily,” he said. “The New Testament does not condemn wealth but the idolatry of wealth.”

One America News Network
Pope calls for more market regulation, denies he is Marxist: paper

Patrick J. Deneen — Would Someone Just Shut That Pope Up?

If the pope would only shut up about economics and talk only about sex.

The American Conservative
Would Someone Just Shut That Pope Up?

Patrick J. Deneen

Robert Costa — Ryan Shrugged

In a comment on another post beowulf pointed out that Paul Ryan began as a Jack Kemp Republican, and now he is confirming that this is, indeed, who he really is. How is this going to go down with the base, one wonders.

Ryan enjoys bantering about dusty novels, but it’s not really his bailiwick. Philosophy, he tells me, is critical, but politics is about more than armchair musing. “This gets to the Jack Kemp in me, for the lack of a better phrase,” he says — crafting public policy from broad ideas. “How do you produce prosperity and upward mobility?” he asks. “How do you attack the root causes of poverty instead of simply treating its symptoms? And how do you avoid a crisis that is going to hurt the vulnerable the most — a debt crisis — from ever happening?”
....Kemp, he says, was a congressional voice who connected conservatism to the empowerment of the poor. He wants to do the same.

Ryan appeals to the moral authority of the pope as a deficit and debt hawk to justify the "expansionary fiscal austerity" of his conservative plan "to empower the poor."

Ryan cites Light of the World, a book-length interview of Pope Benedict XVI, as an example of how the Catholic Church takes the global debt problem seriously. “We are living at the expense of future generations,” the pope says. “In this respect, it is plain that we are living in untruth.” Ryan takes those words seriously. “The pope was really clear,” he says.

Ryan also appeals to the principle of subsidiarity, a bedrock principle of Catholic social and political philosophy that should inform law and government.

Ryan’s budget, which was passed by the House earlier this year, cuts spending and reduces taxes. It also reforms Medicare and Medicaid, he says, in order to keep them solvent for future generations. But to Ryan, his plan is more than a fiscal document, meant to tinker with the bloated federal bureaucracy: It is part of a push to return money and federal power, as well as certain services where feasible, to the people.

Ryan mentions the Catholic principle of subsidiarity as an influence on his thinking. He believes that the best government is a government closest to the people. He is a strong believer in the power of civil society, not the federal government, to solve problems. Community leaders and churches, he says, can often do more for the poor than a federal bureaucrat who scribbles their names on a check, sustaining dependency.

Ryan’s goal, with his budget and future projects, will be to “combine the virtues and principles of solidarity,” which stresses the benefits of the common good, with subsidiarity.

National Review

Ryan Shrugged
Robert Costa
(h/t John Carney)

Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand, and Thomas Aquinas = Exploding Heads

Following up on Paul Ryan's recent repudiation of Ayn Rand and embrace of Thomas Aquinas, Mike Kimel point us to a couple of arguments Aquinas mounts in the Summa Theologica — one against interest, which is also prohibited in Islam, and the other to the effect that the purpose of wealth is to provide aid to the poor. Aquinas also asserts that it is no sin to appropriate the private property of others for survival, if society doesn't provide the means of subsistence.

Interestingly, both Ayn Rand and Thomas Aquinas professed to be followers  of Aristotle in asserting the reason is the defining characteristic of human nature. The assumption that humans are "rational animals" also underlies REH. However, Ayn Rand and those subscribing to REH hold that rationality   equates with individual pursuit of maximum utility economically. Aquinas could not disagree more. He holds that rationality and faith are compatible rather than mutually exclusive, as Rand thought.

The views of Aquinas that Kimel mentions stand in stark contrast to the foundational assumptions of modern capitalism, especially neoliberal economics. However, in the mind of Aquinas he was just providing a solid rational basis for the teaching of the gospels, which is a matter of faith, showing the compatibility of faith and reason.

Jesus was much more direct,however, and cut to the chase:

"...but seek ye first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33 (Young's Literal Translation)

"...Verily I say to you, inasmuch as ye did it to one of these my brethren — the least — to me ye did it." Matthew 25:40 (Young's Literal Translation)

"Treasure not up to yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust disfigure, and where thieves break through and steal, but treasure up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth disfigure, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will be also your heart." Matthew 6:19-21 (Young's Literal Translation)

"... 'If thou dost will to be perfect, go away, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.'" Matthew 19:21 (Young's Literal Translation)

These are called "hard sayings." Many either ignore them or else reinterpret them to suit themselves. But the meaning is abundantly clear, and the message is incompatible with what Paul Ryan represents.

The entire Sermon on the Mount, including the Beatitudes (Matthew, chapters 5-7) are considered by most Christians to be the formula for discipleship, and scholars, who often argue over the authenticity of sayings attributed to Jesus, are in general agreement that the Sermon on the Mount represents authentic sayings of Jesus, probably very close to the words he uttered on the occasion. So there should be no dispute over this.

Read it at Angry Bear
Ayn Rand v. Thomas Aquinas in Paul Ryan's Mind

by Mike Kimel

Under Catholic pressure Paul Ryan backs away from Rand, Objectivism

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), when faced with a letter of condemnation by 90 Catholic faculty members at Georgetown University, has abruptly decided to back away from his famous endorsement of the works of controversial author Ayn Rand and her philosophy of “Objectivism.”  The congressman, who is scheduled to speak at the Catholic university today, is now emphasizing Christian philosophers and the writings of Pope Benedict XVI as the true exemplars of his world view over Russian émigré and atheist Rand.

A National Review profile from early Thursday said, “‘I reject her philosophy,’ Ryan says firmly. ‘It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,’ who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. ‘Don’t give me Ayn Rand,’ he says.”Ryan, said the Review, is actually “a practicing Roman Catholic” and that “his faith and moral values shape his politics as much as his belief in freedom and capitalism does.”

Ryan went so far as to decry his affinity for the book Atlas Shrugged and its author as an “urban legend,” and cites it as proof that he’s “arrived in politics” that a false story is out there circulating about him.  He says the association of his name to Rand and her brand of capitalism-as-religion is “inaccurate” and “part of an effort on the left to paint him as a cold-hearted Objectivist.”

Pardon me while I laugh. (ROFL)

Read it at Raw Story
Under Catholic pressure Paul Ryan backs away from Rand, Objectivism

by David Ferguson | editor at Raw Story

The crack in the dike?

"If Paul Ryan Knew What Poverty Was, He Wouldn't Be Giving This Speech"

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House budget committee, knew some Catholics were spoiling for a fight with him Thursday when he was scheduled to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. Nearly 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter expressing concerns with his recent comments that his proposed budget, which includes massive spending cuts to programs for the poor but not a single tax increase, was inspired by his Catholic faith.

"I am afraid that Chairman Ryan's budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Father Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, in a press release Tuesday. "Survival of the fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love."

Read it at Mother Jones
"If Paul Ryan Knew What Poverty Was, He Wouldn't Be Giving This Speech"

by  | Stephanie Mencimer | legal affairs and domestic policy correspondent, Mother Jones' Washington bureau

This is just the beginning of push-back by Christians against Randism, which is incompatible with Christianity.