A central principle of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is the right to food for all persons. For example, in Pacem in Terris (11) St. John XXIII states that “Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life; these are primarily food,…
DetailsThe tax reform adopted in in the U.S. in December 2017 has significant implications for charitable deductions. Households that do not pay mortgage interest and do not have major medical expenses are likely to find that giving to charity no longer brings tax benefits. The purpose of this article is to explain how “charity bunching”…
DetailsThis will be our only issue of “On the Margin” in 2019, and I am happy to give you an update on the society. CREDO continues to grow. We have nearly 600 members, and membership has already grew over 18 percent in 2018, and has already grown about 10 percent this year. We will be…
DetailsCatholic Social Teaching (CST) is generally considered to have started with the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII The Condition of Labor (Rerum Novarum). This encyclical called out the wretched conditions of industrial workers and articulated the rights and duties of workers and employers, including the rights of workers to organize. On this foundation, the social…
DetailsFollowing the financial crisis, already ten years old, Europe was hit by a severe sovereign debt crisis that challenged the European institutions. Should the ECB have responded to the crisis with the powerful tools of monetary issuance? Or should instead the solution of the crisis be left to the fragile European fiscal institutions? At the…
DetailsThe focus of this issue was supposed to be marriage and the family, but on April 17, Francis Cardinal George, passed away after a long bout with cancer. He was our Episcopal Moderator, that is, our church representative on CREDO’s board, and in many ways he was the impetus for the existence of our society, so I would like to spend some time in this column celebrating his life.
Francis George was born in Chicago on January 16, 1937, as the country was still struggling with the Great Depression. The second of two children, he attended the Chicago parochial schools, and he was the only bishop of Chicago to be a native Chicagoan. Although a native son, he had a measured view of the city of Chicago as an adult. He loved the people and his diocese, but he hated the corruption of local politics. …
DetailsI have been in several seminars and informal conversations where someone asks “what is subsidiarity, anyway?” In response, I have heard both knowledgeable lay people, priests, and bishops answer something to this effect: “subsidiarity is the principle that actions, when possible, should be taken at the lowest level,” or “it is basically decentralization.” In this…
DetailsWelcome to the second issue of our CREDO newsletter. A great deal has happened since our last issue.
In the spring, Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century became a New York Times bestseller, creating excitement, controversy and much discussion in the economics community but probably more so in the Church, media, and broader society. The focus of the book is, of course, wealth and income inequality, and we have decided to give some focus to the issue in the current issue. CREDO vice-president Jesus Fernandez Villaverde has contributed a thoughtful review of the book…
DetailsDuring Labor Day weekend we take time to reflect on what allows us to “put food on the table.” In my line of work, as a pastor, I encounter people regularly who have to make difficult choices that no one should have to make: do I buy food or do I pay my rent? Many of our churches, synagogues, schools and community centers try to lend a hand to families in need. In many cases, the aid is appreciated but insufficient to get the family to a position of self-sufficiency.
It is during this time when so many Americans struggle to find work and put meals on the table that lawmakers in Washington are cutting a vital lifeline — food assistance — that protects vulnerable families from falling into poverty. This is a moral scandal that betrays our nation’s best values and highest ideals. …
DetailsNon-economists often falsely assume that homo economicus is somehow isomorphic with homo avidus, greedy man. The charge is unfair and confuses pursuit of the goods one desire with pursuit of narrow self-interest. Although the charge is unfair, it does capture some real reasons to be uneasy with the economic approach to the human person. The difficulty can best be seen by considering the alternative view of the human person we find in Catholic thought. The sketch that follows derives from Thomas Aquinas, whose thought is central to the Catholic approach. …
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