Introduction to why Im not a Georgist: We come at last to where we can understand specifically how the common sense thought of G. K. Chesterton fell victim to the uncommon nonsense of socialism. We have seen how socialism began creeping into Catholic social thought through the popularity of the proposals of the agrarian socialist Henry George, and how in Rerum Novarum Leo XIII carefully refuted not only George’s theories, but the whole of socialism. The question then becomes how, in light of Rerum Novarum, any Catholic (or, for that matter, anyone else with the ability to use common sense) could possibly construe Catholic social teaching in any way other than what we at CESJ believe to be consistent with what we call the Just Third Way. The answer lies in the career of the man who almost singlehandedly changed what it means for something to be true in the understanding of Catholic social teaching or anything else: Monsignor John A. Ryan, S.T.D. (1869-1945). The story begins with Henry George’s mayoral bid in 1886. As the solidarist economist Dr. Franz H. Mueller related in his book, The Church and the Social Question (1984), “the newly elevated Archbishop of New York, Michael A. Corrigan, supposedly at the urging of Bishop Bernard McQuaid of Rochester, N.Y., formally denounced Georgism with the result that Father McGlynn publicly and scornfully contradicted him.” (Franz H. Mueller, The Church and the Social Question. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research, 1984, 65.) After a great deal of discussion among the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, McGlynn was excommunicated in 1887. He had refused to go to Rome to answer charges resulting from his efforts to advance George’s socialist program after several more warnings to desist. He was reinstated in 1892 after an equivocal recantation through a third party. This was quite probably because many members of the hierarchy, although agreeing that while McGlynn richly deserved excommunication both for open disobedience, insulting behavior, and espousing heretical views, were doubtful about the political wisdom of such a move. McGlynn managed to obtain a private audience with Leo XIII in 1893. Georgist legend has it that during this audience McGlynn persuaded Leo XIII to accept George’s “single tax” proposal as consistent with Rerum Novarum. There are at least two problems with this claim, either one sufficient to refute it. One, it was the “single tax” that the pope and others specifically condemned in the georgist proposal. The question of title was, to all intents and purposes, irrelevant to the main point. This was whether “ownership” means the right to control what is owned and receive the “fruits of ownership,” i.e., income and disposal of both the income and what is owned. Two, there is no contemporary evidence or even claim that the pope said any such thing. The earliest mention I have found is from 1916 — long after George, McGlynn, and Leo XIII were dead — in ABC of Taxation by Charles Bowdoin Fillebrown, a georgist. It was during the height of George’s popularity in the late 19th century that John A. Ryan read George’s Progress and Poverty in his “early teens.”(1) He later claimed that he did not fully understand it. (Ibid.) Reading the book, however, inspired him to commit his life to social justice. (Ibid.) (1) Harlan Beckley, “Reflections on the Life of Monsignor John A. Ryan,” Robert G. Kennedy, Mary Christine Athans, Bernard V. Brady, William C. McDonough, and Michael J. Naughton, editors, Religion and Public Life: The Legacy of Monsignor John A. Ryan. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2001, 7. Ryan must have received a severe shock when he was eighteen and McGlynn was excommunicated. Ryan would have been discerning his vocation to the priesthood, and McGlynn and McGlynn’s version of social activism may have been something of a model for him. If we believe the account of Eric Goldman in Rendezvous with Destiny (Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous with Destiny. New York: Vintage Books, 1956), however, Ryan quickly learned how to mask his philosophical and social heterodoxy. just3rdway.blogspot/2013/11/saint-gilbert-keith-chesterton-xxiii.html
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:34:54 +0000
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