The Preferential Option, Pope Pius XI, and the Foundations of Social Economics

Abstract

First proposed by the Latin American hierarchy in their path breaking Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979) documents, accepted but rephrased as a love of preference for the poor by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, identified by the U.S. Bishops in their pastoral letter on the economy as the litmus test for justice in public policy, the option for the poor is frequently cited as a fundamental principle of Catholic social doctrine. References to the preferential option raise a fundamental question for social economics: Have the liberation theologians who espouse such a doctrine detected the need for fundamental correction in the Church's teaching on economics? Or, on the contrary, does the new principle represent merely a shift in emphasis, a change in policy tactics rather than in basic principle? Can the preferential option be adapted into the mainstream of social economics ? reconciled with the Church's teaching on natural law, especially as the latter is embodied in the social encyclicals?1