After Caritas In Veritate?

Abstract

This article provides a summary of the thought of the major economic thinkers of the past two centuries, especially tracing the development of economic liberalism. It notes the resurgence of that perspective in the current era (what is called “neoliberalism”). It points to the flaws in economic liberalism and contrasts the modern social teaching of the Church in the encyclicals to it and to its purported nemesis, Marxism. It notes Pope Benedict XVI’s acknowledgment of the influence of the early German Catholic social thinkers, such as Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, on that teaching. Caritas in Veritate—the latest social encyclical addressed to the economic order which is now once again in continuing crisis on a worldwide scale—has been written, examined, praised by some, found wanting by others, and put on the shelf along with the rest of such efforts by popes dating to Pope Leo XIII in 1891. Except during the period surrounding the Great Depression, they were never taken as seriously as would have been merited considering the harsh conditions and the twisted thinking that gave rise to those conditions. During that former era, in the United States, names like Father Charles E. Coughlin and Msgr. John A. Ryan were known widely for their activity in promoting them, along with certain other priests like Father (later Bishop) Francis J. Haas, and the Jesuit scholar Joseph Husslein. Indeed, the term “labor priest” became a common term, and various dioceses around the country established what came to be known as “labor colleges.” There one could get a rudimentary knowledge of what Leo XIII and Pius XI had taught in Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno about the rights of workers to organize, and to a just wage and other humane working conditions. In recent years, we have seen some in the Church troublingly go along with a resurrected liberalism (“neoliberalism”), which arose in opposition to the increased government intervention sparked by the widespread economic crisis during the decades following World War I. On the other side of the spectrum of social ideology, there has been some clerical activity in the direction of what came to be known as “liberation theology.” It reflects, among other things, the experience of certain missionary orders amid the harsh economic conditions where they serve, for example, in some Latin American countries. These advocates were at times disturbingly to the left of the mark established in authentic