God in Government: Another Take on the Pope's Encyclical

Another Take on the Pope's Encyclical

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

The Rev. Eugene J. Koprowski from the Missionaries of the Evangelium Vitae e-mailed me to express concern that my story, and others, written about the new encyclical issued by Pope Benedict XVI was "naive." Here's what he has to say, quoting from his e-mail:

"Pope Benedict XVI's letter is in the Catholic social justice tradition, not that much different, I would argue, from Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, 'On Capital and Labor,' published well over 100 years ago, but in contemporary language."

"Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903 as pontiff, writing about the difficulties faced by the working class in that tumultuous era, commented that 'to remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies.

"They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights, inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to enjoy. But their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer.

"They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community.'

"Benedict, also writing in a time of economic turmoil, just as his predecessor did, writes, 'the market is the economic institution that permits encounter between persons' as 'economic subjects' who contract to trade goods and services of equivalent value. That, the pope notes, involves trust and fraternity.

"As the Pope notes, the market, used rightly, is a particular application of the virtue of charity, which he believes to be at the core of things, not 'an added extra,' tacked on to a range of other activities.

"To the extent that any pope calls for a more just distribution of wealth, he is not, in any way, endorsing oppressive taxation or confiscation of wealth by the government to achieve those ends. He is calling on the human beings to be charitable to each other -- in their daily dealings. He's not calling for 'card check' or 'cap-and-trade' or any other particular bill before the U.S. Congress.

"Thus, this pope, like his predecessor, John Paul II, and like Leo XII, and like the founder of the Church, Jesus Christ, calls for people to live in harmony and community, and to live in trust and fraternity. This is the Christian ideal."

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Another Take on the Pope's Encyclical

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