Regulation and ‘the Right Ordering of Economic Life’
SINCE THE FIRST papal encyclical on modern economic questions, Rerum Novarum, was promulgated in 1891, Catholic pontiffs have had harsh words for “unbridled capitalism” and “philosophical liberalism.” In Quadragesimo Anno (1931), Pope Pius XI wrote that “the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching.” In Octogesima Adveniens (1971), Pope Paul VI argued that “structures” should be set up “in which the rhythm of progress would be regulated with a view to greater justice.”
The upshot—that a capitalist system cannot be trusted automatically to produce what the Church views as regulate the market?
