Paragraph 88: “Just as the unity of human society cannot be founded on an opposition of classes, so also 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”. Destroying through forgetfulness or ignorance the social and moral character of economic life, it held that economic life must be considered and treated as altogether free from and independent of public authority, because in the market, i.e., in the free struggle of competitors, it would have a principle of self direction which governs it much more perfectly than would the intervention of any created intellect”. Take special note: this capitalized section here highlights one of the most famous parts of this encyclical. Without hesitation Pius XI called “individualist” economics a “poisoned spring” and infers that to imbibe from it is to poison oneself - giving a person such a skewed world view as to be incapable of living or teaching what is true, right and just on economics and unable to see how to truly exercise charity which without justice may in fact, in the attempt to meet daily basic needs that sustain human life (like food, potable water, clothing, shelter and medical care), perpetuate the evil social structures that cause so much suffering from the continuous lack of these needs in the mass of the world’s people. Note: this “principle of self-direction” is what the Holy Father called “economic dictatorship”. Link to the full text of the encyclical: w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html Link to my full summary of the encyclical: mikedrabiksmeanderings.blogspot/2014/12/quadragesimo-anno-summary.html
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:15:46 +0000
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