Catholic Social Doctrine Isn't a Surrogate for Capitalism
Catholic social doctrine is not a surrogate for capitalism. In fact, although decisively condemning “socialism,” the church, since Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, has always distanced itself from capitalistic ideology, holding it responsible for grave social injustices (§2). In Quadragesimo Anno Pius XI, for his part, used clear and strong words to stigmatize the international imperialism of money (§109). —John Paul II, speaking in Latvia in 1993
S aint John Paul II died sixteen years ago. There are still many people alive in Poland who knew him personally and were his close friends. That still does not change the fact that, due to fundamental misunderstandings, some key elements of his thought are still little-known to the wider public. In fact, his thinking remains so lively that a few years ago in Poland it sparked a heated controversy about his stance on capitalism.
Paweł Rojek admirably summarized this disagreement between reporter Jonathan Luxmoore and popular Catholic writer George Weigel in a synoptic essay here. Briefly, Wojtyła’s recently published early writings on Catholic social ethics were at the center of the controversy. These 1953-1954 lectures were previously known but only became available to the general public a couple of years ago in a critical edition simply entitled Catholic Social Ethics.
