Abstract
Caritas in Veritate is the latest in the series of papal 'social encyclicals' beginning with Rerum Novarum (1891). Like its immediate predecessor Centesimus Annus (1991), it presents a body of economic doctrine favourable to the market economy that is superimposed on an underlying body of older doctrine that is deeply hostile to it. This article investigates the possibility that this incoherence results from a corresponding incoherence in the theological framework of the recent encyclicals. The doctrine of the encyclicals is then contrasted with an eighteenth-century, Anglo-Scotch tradition of thought that showed the compatibility with Catholic moral theology of a privately owned, competitive economy driven by self-love. This tradition is the intellectual origin of modern economics, yet it has not been available to the Church of Rome because of an historical accident. The article concludes by speculating upon the reasons for this.
Highlights
Caritas in Veritate is the latest in the series of papal ‘social encyclicals’ beginning with Rerum Novarum (1891)
In addition to the observations about incentives and the rule of law, there is some slightly more explicit awareness that economic activity is driven by individuals: “The peoples themselves have the prime responsibility to work for their own development” (CV, 47; citing Populorum Progressio (PP), 77)
I have deliberately ignored some of its most important ideas, such as those of development (CV, 11, 13-15, 17-19, 21, 29, 52, 76, 79), the common good (CV, 7, 21, 36, 41, 57), and justice (CV, 6, 35, 36, 54, 78). It correctly warns against rights talk and insists on the moral priority of duty (CV, 43); and correctly affirms that “Man is not a lost atom in a random universe: he is God’s creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul and whom he has always loved” (CV, 29)
Summary
The encyclical recognises explicitly several fundamentally important ideas, acknowledged by economists to be necessary conditions of sustained development and growth. In addition to the observations about incentives and the rule of law, there is some slightly more explicit awareness that economic activity is driven by individuals: “The peoples themselves have the prime responsibility to work for their own development” (CV, 47; citing PP, 77) This necessary self-reliance can be undermined by foreign and domestic paternalism: At times [...] those who receive aid become subordinate to the aidgivers, and the poor serve to perpetuate expensive bureaucracies which consume an excessively high percentage of the funds intended for development (CV, 47). These true and important insights imply that economic activity is driven by purposeful individuals and firms, dependent upon publicly sanctioned and privately ratified law and order, having self-determined goals and responsive to incentives. Which is why “The economy needs ethics in order to function effectively” (CV, 45)
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