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The Pope Embraces Market Economics: Centesimus Annus as a Study in Doctrinal Development
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19570 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
6,085 Words |
| Author
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Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr.
Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr., is a doctorial candidate in the
study of politics and theology in the theology department at
Boston College. |
In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
--John Henry Newman
In an introduction to the Vatican II document on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae Personae, John Courtney Murray, S.J., said:
It was, of course, the most controversial document of the whole Council, largely because it raised with sharp emphasis the issue that lay continually below the surface of all the conciliar debates--the issue of the development of doctrine. The notion of development, not the notion of religious freedom, was the real sticking-point for many of those who opposed the Declaration even to the end. The course of the development between the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and Dignitatis Humanae Personae (1965) still remains to be explained by theologians.
Recognizing the dramatic change in tone and emphasis in the document, Murray emphasizes the need to account for this in light of earlier church teaching on religious liberty. While Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical Centesimus Annus does not replicate the radical shift in church teaching represented in Dignitatis Humanae, it certainly does present a significant change in emphasis and approach regarding the proper order of a political economy. And, as with any document, this one takes its place in the catalog of church teachings that must be accounted for within the category of doctrinal development.
Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus is without question a living example of the development of a Catholic idea. The idea is that the church and her members have a special concern for the plight of the poor and how the problem of poverty can be overcome. But the doctrines that have explained this idea have been developing for many years. As late as 1988, John Paul II had great and grave reservations about capitalist economies. He had upheld the necessity and justice of private property (which the Roman Catholic Church has done for many centuries), and in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, John Paul proclaimed freedom of economic initiative as a right not to be abridged by the state or other forces. But he was still, it seemed, a considerable distance from endorsing a particular type of political economy.
Even vocal allies of the pope were disappointed with Sollicitudo. Michael Novak was pleased that the pope affirmed a fundamental right to economic initiative but was disappointed with the
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