God and ownership/property rights?

[Writer_for_God]

Hi,
I have been trying to figure out in terms of Catholic teaching what sort of political and economic ideas are best. It seems that a lot of the debate is heavily based on different and conflicting ideas about ownership/property rights. What I want to know best are what are our rights to property, and to go even further, as I think someone mentioned in a previous forum post, what are God’s property rights? Does God have property rights? Most of the economic conflict and debate seems about what human persons have rights to what property, but no one I have read is discussing what God’s property or rights are. If anyone mentions God, it seems they are focused on God giving humans property rights, but do not discuss what are God’s rights and property.
Any ideas or thoughts or reading suggestions?
Thanks for any help with this topic. And feel free to offer prayers to help me and others understand the subject better in accordance with God’s wisdom.
God bless you. Amen.

 

[Vouthon]

Good question, I welcome it.

God is sovereign over all things that He has created.

The Church’s sacred tradition maintains that the right to private ownership is subordinate to the universal destination of goods, which precedes the apportioning and division of goods arising from the positive law (because it is God’s law in nature itself).

The Second Vatican Council reminded us of this: “God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people".

In light of the kingdom of God, possessions become elachistos (Luke 16:10), they belong to the passing age. Later in the same gospel account, Jesus contends that worldly assets are “the belongings of another” (Luke 16:12), clearly implying that we do not properly ‘own’ any private property in the absolute sense, because we are really ‘stewards’ of goods which, in point of fact, belong to God and by his will everyone who lives on earth prior to our appropriation.

In chapter 16 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus explains this teaching by means of his ‘Parable of the Dishonest Steward’. This involves a steward, or manager, who misappropriates and squanders his master’s wealth for which reason he is threatened with redundancy. The meaning is rather stark: Jesus is telling his listeners that we are all, each one of us, ‘dishonest stewards’ appropriating to ourselves and squandering goods which do not properly belong to us but to God, who intends for them to be used for the benefit of all and especially the underprivileged.

That’s the attitude we should have towards any superfluous wealth under our control (beyond what we need to live).

The question is this: do we view property - realty, chattel, whatever - beyond what we truly need to survive as an “absolute”, unconditioned personal right without any concomitant social obligations to others?

Jesus and the traditional doctrine of the Church gives an affirmative “no”. The fact that we have income, corporation and in some countries land value taxation also indicates that only the most extreme kind of libertarian capitalists today would see property in this absolute way. But even those of us who don’t, and who gladly pay our taxes to be used for the public good, can still fall victim to selfish use of our personal wealth.

One part of it, is about living without being inordinately attached to material objects. This is the “spiritual” or “mystical” dimension emphasized by the Gospel of Matthew.

The other element, is the one stressed by Luke 6:2, which has to do with an actual social issue about the hoarding of goods and resources, as reflected in the communitarian church economics reflected in Acts 2:44-45 where the early believers “had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.”

Behind all of this lies a theological concept which regards the goods of the earth as destined for the succour of humankind as a whole.

 

[Theo520]

Your question isn’t very clear.
The Church fully supports ownership/property rights by individuals and businesses.
The Church doesn’t have any land registered with God as the owner.

 

[RandomAlias]

The Catechism has the following. It does not speak of God having property rights, but rather of God creating the earth and material goods for the benefit of the whole human race. The Universal Destination of Created Goods as described here has some similarities to the idea you are grasping.

I. The Universal Destination and the Private Ownership of Goods

2402 In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.

2403 The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.

2404 “In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself.” The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.

2405 Goods of production - material or immaterial - such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.

2406 Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.

 

[midori]

Have you read Rerum Novarum? If the intersection of Catholicism, Labor, and Property Rights is interesting to you, it’s important to read it. And then you might try reading some other things that built upon those Catholic-flavored economic concepts, like Belloc’s Servile State, or Chesterton’s Utopia of Usurers/Outline of Sanity/ What’s Wrong With the World.

As far as God’s concerned, I suspect what he wants most is souls. He already has plenty of real estate— but it’s the souls that’s where it’s at for him.