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Questions Answered

July 27, 2015 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Question: Pope Francis recently questioned the ethics of trickledown economics. Are there principles for governing competition in the workplace? Answer: One of the primary moral problems with a semi-capitalist economy is the relation of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions Answered Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, economics, mercy, patience, social justice, trickle-down economics

Laudato? Si!

June 27, 2015 by David Vincent Meconi

The Holy Father’s recent encyclical on the Christian care of the environment deserves to be read by all the faithful. He takes its name from his beloved Francis of Assisi’s "Canticle," Laudato Si, “Let him be praised.” For too long, the Magi … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Editorial Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, ecology, encyclicals, Laudato Si, social justice, St. Francis of Assisi

The Theological Mind of Laudato Si’

June 27, 2015 by Eduardo Echeverria

In this article, I consciously refrain from considering the parts of Pope Francis’s new Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’ (hereafter LS) that have been the most contentiously received, namely: his views of a free market system, the nature and e … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, creation, ecology, Laudato Si, social justice, technology, theology

Questions Answered

May 12, 2015 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Can you give me some advice on the morality of anger? Is it always evil? Does the Church give practical moral norms for hiring in companies? Question: Can you give me some advice on the morality of anger? Is it always … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions Answered Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, emotions, ethics, Justice, moral theology, morality, virtues

Questions Answered

December 15, 2014 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Can you tell me what the origin is of our rights and how this relates to the laws of the state? Pope Francis recently caused a reaction in the United States by condemning “unfettered capitalism.” Is this an innovation in Catholic tho … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions Answered Tagged With: capitalism, Catholic Social Teaching, communism, Evangelii Gaudium, Justice, philosophy, politics, Pope Francis, poverty, rights

Questions Answered

July 2014

July 10, 2014 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Is socialized medicine ethical? When the Pope recently washed the feet of women on Holy Thursday, does that mean that the liturgical law is changed which prescribes that only men should have their feet washed?    Question: Is so … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions Answered Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, Church Magisterium, dicasteries, dubium, economics, feet washing, government interference, government ownership, health care, John Maynard Keynes, laissez faire capitalism, liturgy, Lumen Gentium, papal infallibility, Paul Johnson, Pope Francis, social justice, Vatican I, Vatican II

Youth and Technology Revitalize the Pro-Life Movement

March 24, 2014 by Mary Beth Smith

So, why are college campuses “ground zero” for pro-life activism? Because Gallup Poll statistics report that upon entering college, 47 percent of women were pro-life, but by graduation 73 percent said they were pro-choice.   The equation “ … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Magazine Tagged With: abortion, Catholic Social Teaching, conscience, Evangelium Vitae, formation of conscience, March for Life, Marvin L. K. Mich, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, pro-life, Roe v. Wade, social justice, Students for Life of America, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

A Liberationist Pope

February 7, 2014 by Dr. Michel Therrien, STD

Read carefully: We should see in this critique (by Pope Francis), not an embrace of socialism, or a condemnation of the market economy, but a call to adopt a different ethic for the marketplace. Pope Francis is a Jesuit, a prelate from … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Magazine Tagged With: American Enterprise Institute, Caritas in Veritate, Catholic Social Teaching, Evangelii Gaudium, financial speculation, free market, globalization, idolatry of money, laissez faire capitalism, marxism, morality, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Paul VI, Rerum Novarum, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, the New Evangelization, trickle-down economics, welfare

The Social Teaching of John Paul II

January 15, 2014 by Dr. John C. Caiazza, PhD

John Paul wanted to move forward the Council’s openness and announcement of Christian hope to the postmodern world, but ... he saw that the excesses brought about by the Council were having destructive effects and acted to preserve the C … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Magazine Tagged With: Adam Smith, capitalism, Catholic Social Teaching, Centesimus Annus, communism, Edmund Husserl, free market, Fukuyama, Heidegger, Joseph Gremillon, Karl Marx, laborem Exercens, Max Scheler, Milton Friedman, Morris West, Mother Teresa, natural law, Phenomenology, Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Popularum Progressio, pre-industrial nations, Rerum Novarum, socialism, solidarity, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Soviet Union, St. Edith Stein, St. John XXIII, The End of History, The Wealth of Nations

The Ethics of Water

October 22, 2013 by Christopher Meehan

Some 13 percent of the world’s population does not have access to improved water (about 910 million people).     Water access efforts (USAID.GOV) For most Americans, few things are more easily taken for granted than the water tap. The abi … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Magazine Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, Christina Z. Peppard, David Gushee, Elena Lopez-Gunn, ethics, Lucia De Stefano, Michael Guebert, Nature Conservancy, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Pope John Paul II, Ramon Llamas, Sandra Postel, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, water

Social Justice According to Pius XI

December 26, 2012 by Thomas Storck

The term “social justice”... is the key term and concept of Catholic social teaching ... with all the other aspects of the Church's social doctrine—the principle of subsidiarity, the just wage or the right to private property—are related to, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching, Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, social justice

Questions Answered

What is a just wage; the nature of the common good?

February 1, 2012 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Just Wage Question:  Can you explain what a just wage is, and how one would determine it? Answer:   The problem of the just wage is what has been called the “social question.”  In order to address this issue, it is necessary to underst … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions Answered Tagged With: capitalism, Catholic Social Teaching, communism, democracy, free market, Hobbes, Karl Marx, laborem Exercens, laissez faire capitalism, Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, Rerum Novarum, rights, Rousseau, social justice, solidarity, St. Thomas Aquinas

Bishop von Ketteler and Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching: An Historical Perspective. By Robert Aubert; edited by David A. Boileau (Marquette University Press, P.O. Box 3141, Milwaukee, Wis. 53201, 2003), 288 pp. PB $35.00.

April 1, 2005 by Book Reviews

Little known to American readers, Roger Aubert is professor emeritus of history, the Catholic University of Louvain, and director of the prestigious revue d’histoire ecclesiastique. He is known especially for his interest in the Church’s 19t … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Catholic Social Teaching
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