Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching

John writes:

Is Catholicism compatible with the ethic of capitalism? In the United States, many Catholics have become rather right-wing when it comes to economics. This can only be partially explained by the upward mobility of some sectors of the Catholic population, as many Catholic conservatives are blue-collar workers, the famous "Reagan Democrats," or their children. Furthermore, the importance of social issues such as abortion and gay marriage cannot completely explain the attractiveness of fusionism (the mixture of social conservatism and economic libertarianism), as nobody is forced to intellectually accept both wings of the fusionist platform, even if one might begrudgingly vote for Republicans based on the argument that the Republican Party is "pro-life" (I would argue that the GOP is at best only nominally pro-life, but that is a story for another day).

Fusionism has actually benefited from both ignorance and the misrepresentation of Catholic Social Teaching. Take for example the principle of subsidiarity, which is often used by Catholic libertarians to declare State intervention to be antithetical to Catholic values. But as Dr. Charles M.A. Clark, an economics professor at St. John's University, notes:

"A major thrust of subsidiarity is the contention that if a task can be equally carried out by small or large organizations, the smaller one is preferable. It does not assert that larger organizations, such as the state, have no role to play; just that the state should only carry out activities that are beyond the capabilities of smaller organizations."

Now it may be that in an advanced industrial economy certain activities, such as health care, can only be dealt with adequately on a larger scale. If analyzed in the context of history, an institution such as the United Kingdom's NHS may not violate the principle of subsidiarity. Additionally, the principle of subsidiarity can also be applied to the private sector (although, curiously, among Catholic libertarians this line of analysis does not seem to be as common as attacks on the public sector). Do we really need Home Depot when we can have many small hardware stores instead?

Of course, as with the public sector, the application of the principle of subsidiarity to the private sector must take into consideration the capability of smaller organizations to actually carry out activities given current historical conditions. We wouldn't demand that the the local mechanic also mass-produce automobiles, so why should we demand that the sick rely on local fundraisers to pay for gigantic medical bills?

On an even deeper level, however, there is a clear problem with the concept that the Church supports a minimal "night watchman" government. The Church has always supported the State or other institutions intervening in the economy. As Amintore Fanfani wrote in his landmark book Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism:

"In the Middle Ages, by supporting the intervention of public bodies in economic life as a check to individual activity and to defend the interests of society as a whole; in our own time [in Fanfani's case, the 20th century], by calling for State intervention for the same reasons, the Church has remained faithful to her anti-capitalistic ethics. Both during the predominance of the medieval guild system, and during that of capitalism, the Church, and those Catholics that listened to her voice, set or sought to set bounds not lawfully to be overstepped to the course of economic life - even at the cost of a sacrifice of mechanical and technical progress, which, in the Catholic conception of society, has never been identical with civilization."

From prohibitions on working during religious holidays to more modern demands for family wages and safe working conditions for laborers, the Church has always supported public intervention in economic life. Thus, the recent attempt to combine Catholicism with Austrian School Economics is arguably as bizarre as the campaign by some left-wing Catholics to merge Marxism with Catholicism. While it is of course possible to gain insights into economics from the writings of Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Karl Marx, there are certain aspects of both Austrianism and Marxism that make them rather incompatible with Catholicism.

Indeed, given current realities, it may be "libertarian theology" that is the more dangerous tendency, given the collapse of the more virulent strains of liberation theology and the growth of well-heeled libertarian organizations such as the Acton Institute. The Acton Institute and similar organizations are in the vanguard of a campaign to transform Christianity into the attack dog of capitalism, the ultimate goal being a state of affairs where any critique of capitalism on the basis of Christian thought leads to a questioning of one's orthodoxy.

Social Catholics and socially-conscious Christians in general, however, have a long and impressive history, and there is no reason to give ground to politicians like Rick Santorum on issues of faith and morality. Indeed, opposition to abortion and support for family values can only be enhanced by a greater emphasis on social justice.