‘Catholicism Speaks to Capitalism’

Pope favors business practices that place human beings ‘at the center of economic life’

MADISON  While most Americans gave an overwhelmingly warm reception to Pope Francis and his open sense of kindness, compassion and humility during his recent visit, a few took the opportunity of his historic trip to blast what they perceive as his pointed criticism of capitalism.

But the fact is that the Pope has praised business as a “noble vocation,” while disapproving of business practices — regardless of the economic system — that place the pursuit of profit over the needs of people, especially the poor, said Philip Brach of The Catholic University of America, Washington, who spoke Oct. 1 on “Catholicism Speaks to Capitalism” at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here.

“Greed is not unique to anyone economic system but rather a condition of the fallen human condition. There are greedy lawyers and doctors and greedy capitalists and socialists,” said Brach, assistant dean of the School of Business and Economics. “The very survival of our free market economic system will rest on those business leaders who understand why and how to put the human person at the center of economic life,” he told his audience.

Pope Francis speaks out against the excesses of business in general, including greed and the idolatry of money, consumerism, the exclusion of the poor and marginalized and the misuse of technology. So the pontiff offers the remedy for these ills: Catholic social teaching, which promotes the common good, human dignity, subsidiary and solidarity, Brach said.

Pope Francis hopes to get people in business to think seriously about corporate social responsibility. “Money must serve, not rule!” (as he writes in apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium), because people are much more important then capital: machinery, equipment, buildings and cash. In his encyclical Laudato Si’, the Holy Father states, “The principle of the maximization of profits … reflects a misunderstanding of the very concept of the economy,” said Brach.

Pope Francis blasts consumerism as a disordered belief that material goods can bring us true happiness. In Laudato Si’, he writes, “This same ‘use-and-throw-away’ logic generates so much waste, because of the disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary.” Instead, the pontiff calls on us to simplify our lives, he said.

“It is not about having or not having nice things, but rather our relationship with material goods — do we use our goods primarily in the service to our family and others?” said Brach, a married father of eight with another child “on the way.”

Economic activity does have the potential of raising the living standards of all participants, but many are excluded from participation, because of the “laws of competition and survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless.” So “masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized, without work, without possibilities, without means of escape, the Pope writes in Evangelii Gaudium, Brach said.

Pope Francis states that we often over-value technological progress no matter how it impacts the common good by replacing workers with machines, even at times of high unemployment, and practicing what he calls “technological absolutism:” the idea that man and science alone can cure all of society’s ills.

Instead, businesses rooted in Catholic social teaching places the human person at the center of economic life by promoting the following principles:

• Common Good: “The sum total of conditions of social living, whereby persons are enabled more fully and readily to achieve their own perfection,” as St. Pope John XXIII wrote in “Mater et Magistra.”

• Human Dignity: The realization that all human persons are made in the image and likeness of God, which leads people to apply this principle, not only to beginning and end-of-life issues, but also issues of human dignity, such as arguments for a just wage.

• Subsidiary: The concept that declares that matters in society should be dealt with a the lowest and most appropriate levels of authority and asserts the “preeminence of the family.”

• Solidarity: Unity arising from fraternal charity.

Pope Francis, he said, urges people to discover more profound solutions in “striving for a deep and profound conversion”— an “ecological conversion — a keen awareness of the good of creation rooted in our understanding of how it mediates our relationship with God the creator, a conversion towards Christ and finally a profound and deeper conversion to his presence in the Eucharist,” Brach said.

During a question-and-answer session after, a few questions centered around the Pope’s supposed views on distribution of wealth. Brach answered, “The Pope may not understand free-markets as much as he should but he challenges us to more [for society’s benefit]. To whom much is given, much is expected.”

“We thank Professor Brach for giving his time and attention to presenting us with a beautiful and clear summary of the [Church’s and Pope Francis’ views on] the economy. It was very helpful,” said Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, after Brach’s presentation.