Did the Pope really say capitalism is cruel?

Question

Saw this reference in a recent article. Can't remember exactly where or when. But it disturbs me & I want to know more about this reference.

Answer 1

Do you remember in Dickens' "The Christmas Carol" when Ebenezer Scrooge was being asked for a donation to the poor?

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge. ...

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

Pure Capitalism is survival of the economic fittest. The economic unfit have no place in a pure Capitalistic economy. This philosophy goes entirely against the Christian ethic of human dignity and love of neighbor.

The Catholic Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with "communism" or "socialism."

She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism," individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor.

Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning (Communism) perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace (Capitalism) fails social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market."

Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.

A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. The disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.

A system that "subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to the collective organization of production" is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism.

"You cannot serve God and mammon."

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

I really don't know. No link was provided, is this regarding an article about Pope Benedict XVI?

Now, I will address the capitalism issue in the Catholic world view in hopes that you'll understand, and at least pet down your ruffled feathers. To do so requires comparison with capitalism with primarily distributism amongst other economic/political theories.

To give some short explanations of what capitalism is on an economic level is to say that in capitalism all property ends up in a state of flux, only a few people ever really own property as a real permanent, no payments on anything, ownership. And most especially, only a few people ever really own the means by which they own property.

G.K. Chesterson said "The problem with Capitalism is not too many capitalists, but too few!"

So in capitalism, the pizza maker works on Pizza Hut's pizza oven.

Then you have socialism where the absolute right to private property (Leo XIII calls it absolutely inviolable) is outright denied. Whereas in Capitalism it just doesn't exist in practice because the property is always in flux, being rented or sold and bought and traded all the time, in socialism the government simply says that there can be no private property. The government owns everything, and the means to get everything.

So in socialism, the pizza maker works on the government's (or "the people's") oven.


Distributism refers to a system in which all property exists in a state of having been distributed-- not by the state or any social institution. And it ought to have been distributed evenly, of course, which will happen if the system is in place. It means that the property is not in flux, that it is owned, and that the means by which to own it is owned by the owner. If socialism is "left" (to which, scripture says, the fool turns) and capitalism is "right", distributism is further right. Capitalism is liberal compared to distributism.

So in distributism, the pizza maker works on the pizza maker's oven.

A capitalist society is full of apprentices and no masters; and all the apprentices are seeking employment because it is too difficult for them to own their own pizza ovens, that's why franchises and such can rise so easily in capitalist societies.

Now of course modern distributism at least in America, have ruined distributism's good name in my estimation, especially following folks like Dorothy Day-- yuck. I think distributism is a sound economic system. It is economic Thomism, which is Christianized economic Aristotelianism.

Communism, Socialism, & Capitalism are all economic oligarchies in which most or all property is own by the powerful few or what is known as the 'people'. I think now that the 'people' are the so-called 'chosen' people. That's sure what it sounds like when you read the U.S.S.R.'s constitution.

First wrongs have to be righted. The No. 1 wrong is usury, but there are many more little ones that cause plenty of damage for example land preservation, urban sprawl, real-estate taxes, public schools, etc. The Catholic idea has always been the right to private property was inviolable, surely it seen as be a sin for a government to steal property even with the lofty aim of redistributing it for good.

(By the way usury is banking, money for interest...which in Catholic view keeps poor people poor or even poorer...look at IMF or World Bank and their brand of banking in Central/South America as well as within Africa). Futhermore to digress a bit--usury is considered theft--that's against the 7th Commandment.

One last thought as I notice I'm becoming redundant: The need to show distributism preaches proper business and proper government: businesses are to be not too small and not too big and the same with the government or rather bigger businesses are not to run small businesses out of business. Socialism is too much government: Capitalism is too much business. Distributism is not Libertarianism nor does it advocate any kind of small government. I see distributism as I see the virtue of Hope. On one side of Hope you have despair and on the other you have presumption. Distributism is like walking a fine line one way off that line leads you to not enough property for some and too much property for others and the other leads you to not enough or no property for everyone; either way someone gets screwed. Distributism is right and everything else (communism, capitalism, socialism, the servile or slave state, etc) is wrong.

These aren't neccesarily MY views--this is a laymens explanation to your question about 'capitalism cruel' in the Catholic view.

I truly hoped this helped. If you need some clarification please feel free to email me and I will go further into it.

Answer 3

Allegedly*, this is from his new book, "Jesus of Nazareth", which will be available in English on May 15th. Not having read the book, I will not comment further.

*After seeing how the press botched the reporting of the 'Limbo story', I'm reluctant to trust them to get anything related to the Pope, the Church, or Catholicism correct.