Papal Statements on Economy, Justice and Rural Life Concerns

Papal Statements on Economy, Justice and Rural Life Concerns

Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII, 1891:
"A tiny group of extravagantly rich men have been able to lay upon the great multitude of unpropertied workers a yoke little better than that of slavery itself."

Quadregesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI, 1931:
"The right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces." The geography of greed is identified by this pope when he refers to the "no less deadly and accursed internationalism of finance whose country is where profit is."

Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII, 1963:
"The fundamental duty of the civil authority is to coordinate and regulate social relations so that one party’s rights do not infringe on another’s. Authority is indispensable, and is for the common good."

Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI, 1967:
"Certain concepts have somehow arisen that present profit as the chief spur to economic progress, free competition as the guiding norm of economics, and private ownership of the means of production, as an absolute right, having no limits or concomitant social obligations. This unbridled liberalism paves the way for a particular type of tyranny."

Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II, 1981:
"We must emphasize and give prominence to the primacy of human beings in the production process, the primacy of human beings over things."

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Pope John Paul II, 1987:
"Behind certain decisions, apparently inspired only by economics or politics, are real forms of idolatry: of money, ideology, class, technology."

Centissimus Annus, Pope John Paul II, 1991:
"At the root of the destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropological error, which unfortunately is widespread in our day. Too little effort is made to safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic "human ecology." Capitalism needs to be circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious."
"The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of State administration."

Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II, 1995:
"We are confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a veritable structure of sin. This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable "culture of death." This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic, and political currents which encourage the idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency...In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life is unleashed."

World Hunger--A Challenge for All: Development in Solidarity, the Pontifical Council, Cor Unum, November 1996, World Food Summit in Rome, Italy:
"There are...many large-scale ‘structures of sin’ which deliberately steer the goods of the earth away from their true purpose, that of serving the good of all, towards private and sterile ends in a process which spreads contagiously."

"Cultures of the Common Good" should create means of production of goods and services which have a truly social purpose and promote the common good and not only the private economic benefit of the few and share with the deprived, who embody the need for the common good in the eyes of all men and women of good will. The obverse of the "structures of sin" are the "structures and cultures of the common good."

"Toward a Better Distribution of Land" Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, January 1998:
"Ownership of the means of production in the agricultural sector is just and legitimate if it serves useful work. It becomes illegitimate, however, when it is not utilized or when it serves to impede the work of others, in an effort to gain a profit which is not the result of the overall expansion of work and the wealth of society."

Ecclesia in America. January 1999:
"The Church in America is called not only to promote greater integration between nations, thus helping to create an authentic globalized culture of solidarity, but also to cooperate with every legitimate means in reducing the negative effects of globalization, such as the domination of the powerful over the weak, especially in the economic sphere, and the loss of the values of local cultures in favor of a misconstrued homogenization." (55)