I go to a liberal Catholic university and one of my biggest pet peeves is when people misuse the term social justice in order to advocate socialism.
. . .
It annoys me because even Catholics I know at my university, it seems like the ONLY part of this document they mention is this one paragraph in order to defend their extreme view of “social justice” and socialism.
So my question is, is there more to Evangelii Gaudium than just a criticism of free markets? I assume there is, but I would love to hear from you! (Hopefully with the end of the semester I will be able to sit down and read it soon)
Thanks!!
I apologize if this isn’t the correct subforum for this thread. Mods, please move if it fits another subforum better
The Exhortation is primarily about the new evangelization and the reform necessary to accomplish it.
Here’s some observations on matters economic I’ve made before that may help. Francis does not reject the free market
in se. I’m also going to attach some data I have collected from the social encyclicals regarding Catholic social teaching and economic theory. Hope they help.
If one reads Evangelii Gaudium carefully it is clear that the Pope is neither a Marxist nor collectivist nor particularly left-leaning.
(1) His default solution to poverty is for the poor to get a real job; and for those who are successful to create job opportunities for others including educational opportunities.
Individual initiative is fundamental to his social vision.
In the text of a talk for workers in Sardinia Francis writes.
“One very important factor for the dignity of the person is, precisely, work; work must be guaranteed if there is to be an authentic promotion of the person. This task is incumbent on the society as a whole.
For this reason we should acknowledge the great merit of those business people who have never stopped working hard in spite of all, investing and taking risks in order to guarantee employment. The culture of work together with that of social assistance, entails an education in work from a young age, guidance in work, dignity for any work activity, sharing work, and the elimination of all illegal work. In this phase the whole of society, every one of its members, should make every possible effort to ensure that work, which is the source of dignity, be the main concern!”
[Pope Francis, “Meeting with Workers” Cagliari, Sardinia, 22 September 2013]
(2) He’s from a South American country and has never been to the U.S.
Many of his economic comments reflect the conditions there. When the Spanish pulled out of South America the wealthiest elites controlled almost all the wealth and the means of production. The poor are truly excluded from the opportunity for upward mobility through individual initiative. No. 53 clearly relates in a particular way to South America.
(3) Francis clearly mentions (184): “This Exhortation is not a social document” and suggests that we read the
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The Compendium rejects collectivism, class warfare, and dependency on government entitlements, and it encourages individual and collective initiative, private ownership of property and the means of production, entrepreneurial ability, education, competition, legitimate profit, and regulated capitalism (i.e., government ensuring a level playing field).
In the same paragraph Francis explicitly qualifies his remarks: “Furthermore, neither the Pope nor the Church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social realities or the proposal of solutions to contemporary problems. Here I can repeat the insightful observation of Pope Paul VI: ‘In the face of such widely varying situations, it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. This is not our ambition, nor is it our mission.
It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country.’”
(4) Francis mentions lack of economic “opportunity” (#s 54, 59, 209) as a social ill three times, not lack of free handouts. Twice he rejects the idea of the “welfare” state/mentality (202, 204). And he cites the teaching of Paul VI in
Popularum Progressio that all people should exercise individual initiative to be artisans of their own destiny. (190)
(5) Good old-fashioned rules for interpretation of papal documents help.
So, when the Francis rejects the idea of the “absolute autonomy of the marketplace” and opposes theories that “reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control” (#56, also 202), we should ask: is that factually the case here in the USA? The answer is “No.” OK, then move on.
When, quoting a letter of Paul VI, he says “the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others” (190), we should ask do the rich here, over and above their taxes, give some of the money and time they have a right to keep to the poor? The answer is “Yes.” OK, then move on.
Take the sentence (202) “Inequality is the root of social ills.” In itself it is extremely frightful, sounding like something out of Marx or Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” Yet once one realizes that, stemming from his South American experience and given what he has already said in the Exhortation, he is talking about inequality of opportunity (not inequality of outcome) and that in the very same paragraph he rejects the idea of the welfare state, the whole thing looks a little different.
The tradition of Catholic social teaching rejects collectivism as an economic policy for nations. Francis is squarely in agreement with that. He is fundamentally a “teach a man to fish” kind of guy.
