Dear Catholic Exchange:
Once again I am tempted to cancel my subscription to the CE newsletter after reading an article from the Acton Institute. After investigating their website, I cannot understand why you choose to include articles from this secular organization which masquerades as a religious one.
Their policies are based on commerce/business as the cure for all ills, and their focus on individual liberty flies in the face of the Church's teachings on the common good.
Today's article twists scripture to support the continued over-consumption of our God-given natural resources. I strongly suspect that the true motive behind this “productive” viewpoint is profit-related and not spiritual as the author implies.
Janet Linwood
[Editor's Note: The following is the response Catholic Exchange received from Father Sirico of the Acton Institute.]
It is simply incorrect to say that the Institute proposes the market as “the cure for all ills.” Our argument is quite the opposite: some of the deepest ills that face families and cultures are not primarily economic or material at root at all, but moral and spiritual. That is a veritable leitmotif of our work. This, however, does not mean that we should not employ the powerful moral potential that exists in the operations of the market. The Catechism's treatment of the common good in numbers 1905 and following make clear that “participation” in society by “taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility,” including “conscientious work,” is the chief way by which people contribute to the common good.
Accepting the Catechism's teaching that the state has an important role to play in achieving the common good (e.g., by enforcing the rule of law), we also welcome the wisdom of the principle of subsidiarity (articulated first by Pope Pius XI and reasserted by John Paul II). By this principle, larger and higher institutions (such as the state) must not interfere with or usurp the responsibility of those individuals and institutions closer to and therefore better able to assess and address the needs of human beings. Thus we stress the capacity and the responsibility of families, churches, and local organizations to meet the needs that normal operation of the market does not.
It is important to remember that, on most specific matters of political and economic policy (those not immediately touching grave moral issues, such as abortion), good Catholics may disagree. “When it comes to reducing these teachings to action,” Blessed Pope John XXIII wrote in reference to social teaching, “it sometimes happens that even sincere Catholic men have differing views” (Mater et Magistra, n. 238).
Additionally, the Acton Institute is an ecumenical organization whose authors may not always express their views in the language of Catholic social teaching. At the same time, the Institute is explicitly committed to orthodox Christianity and draws deeply on Catholic social teaching. I and the many other committed Catholics on staff consider ourselves bound by the authoritative teaching of the Church on matters of faith and morals. (Indeed, far more often than being accused of being a “secular” organization, we are criticized for being “too Catholic.”)
As Christians, we are called to bring the message of the gospel into the modern world. The Institute's particular focus is the relation between the gospel and government, the market, and society. We bring certain convictions to the table, but we welcome other perspectives as we debate the best way to promote a society characterized by true freedom, virtue, and service to the common good.
I hope this is helpful and pray God's blessing upon your important work for the Church.
Fr. Robert Sirico
(Fr. Robert A. Sirico is president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.)
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