Every year, prior to World Food Day (October 16), the United Nations releases The State of Food Security and Nutrition In The World. Among the key messages of the most recent (2018) issue are that, for the third year in a row, rising numbers of people in the world (now 821 million) suffer “undernourishment” –…
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,…
Catholic 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…
A keynote talk from Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces headlined the discussion of the family and its role in the economy on April 30 and May 1, as economists, bishops, and other scholars gather in Chicago for the Lumen Christi Institute’s 7th annual Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought. The theme, “The Family and the Changing Economy”, was quite timely, falling squarely between the two October meetings of the 2014-15 Synod of Bishops on the Family.
The public event was opened by Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, and involved responses by CREDO economists Valerie Ramey (UC-San Diego) and William Evans (Notre Dame), as well Pierre-Andre Chiappori (Columbia), a noted expert on the economics of the family, and Christine Firer Hinze (Fordham), a social ethicist focusing on the family. …
I 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…
Non-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. …
Every year the Lumen Christi Institute conference on Catholic Social Teaching and Economics invites high-profile economists to the University of Chicago to present their work and engage in the ongoing conversation between economics and Catholic Social Teaching. On a larger stage, the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences regularly places top economists next to theologians, philosophers, and bishops to explore issues of common concern.
Why would an economist ever want to enter into a conversation with Catholic Social Teaching (CST)? Economists, like most people, take moral questions seriously, and think that the work of economists can and should inform attempts to answer these questions. Because CST is morally and intellectually serious, and invites prominent economists (Catholic and non-Catholic) into its conversations, it is an obvious candidate for attention from economists. …
A Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, November 1996
As followers of Jesus Christ and participants in a powerful economy, Catholics in the United States are called to work for greater economic justice in the face of persistent poverty, growing income-gaps, and increasing discussion of economic issues in the United States and around the world. We urge Catholics to use the following ethical framework for economic life as principles for reflection, criteria for judgment and directions for action. These principles are drawn directly from Catholic teaching on economic life. …