Despite Marxism’s growing popularity among young people, church authorities spend little time discussing the topic – and when they do, they often speak in a misleading way. Thankfully, Bishop Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, addressed the topic at length last week. He made “Karl Marx and Millennials” the topic of a recent episode of his podcast, “Word on Fire.” In addition to giving a brief overview of Communist philosophy, Bishop Barron answers such questions...

This is the third in a series of essays on Peter Drucker’s early works. As I explained in an earlier post, Drucker recognized that fascists were able to take advantage of the dissatisfaction that many experience in a society dominated by money. They substitute party organization as a parallel social existence and then elevate it into a superior status-granting mechanism. In this way, the party exploits anger over inequality. I also discussed Drucker’s sense that the church should have been...

In Wisconsin, Democratic state legislators are proposing the Clergy Mandatory Reporter Act (CMRA), which would require “that members of the clergy report any instances of child abuse, including sexual abuse, ending the loophole of unjust cover-ups and misreporting currently occurring in our state.” “As an Orthodox priest,”says Rev. Gregory Jensen in this week’s Acton Commentary. “I cannot accept any attempt by the state to re-define for its own purposes the nature of the sacrament of confession.” Catholic League presidentBill Donohuesaid...

Cronyism is everywhere, affecting industries, entrepreneurs and customers and distorting the market through political advantage. So what is cronyism and how does promise genuine capitalism? Anne Rathbone Bradley, the current academic director at The Fund for American Studies, as well as the vice president of Economic Initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and es onto the show to explain how cronyism affects the market and how bat it. Afterwards, Acton’s director of research, Samuel Gregg, joins the show to...

Today, we face a prevalent problem when making arguments about trending topics. Words such as capitalism, socialism, conservative, liberal and other broad categorical terms all have a wide range of meanings and emotions attached to them. Political and ideological topics are discussed passionately and ad nauseam in the news, with friends and around the dinner table. This raises a serious question: How can we have meaningful conversations without clearly defining the words we are using? In order to have any...

On Thursday, June 20th, Acton ed Deltan Dallagnol to deliver an evening plenary address at Acton University 2019. A Harvard-trained attorney, Deltan Dallagnol gained international attention as the lead prosecutor in Operation Car Wash, one of the largest corruption probes in Latin American history. The Car Wash investigation implicated four former presidents and dozens of congressmen and high profile businessmen in Brazil. The case spread to nearly all Brazilian states and more than 12 countries, involving 14 presidents and former...

Today is the first observance of the “International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.” The observance, as Alliance Defending Freedom notes, is considered by human rights experts to be an important step towards the prevention of religious persecution in the future. In May the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution A/RES/73/296 to add this observance and to strongly condemn continuing violence and acts of terrorism targeting individuals, including persons belonging to religious minorities,...

A recent study found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues. An estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills, the research found. But a new nonprofit is trying to alleviate the problem by getting churches to take on their neighbors’ unpaid bills. In an article for Christianity Today, Acton’s Jordan Ballor responds to this new form of philanthropy: “Taking up debts, helping to relieve each other’s burdens . ....

Several years ago economist Bryan Caplan provided themost succinct and helpful statement about how we should think about free trade: “We’d be better off if other countries gave us stuff for free. Isn’t ‘really cheap’ the next-best thing?” As with any simplification, critics could find many reasons to grumble about what that leaves unstated (e.g., trade leads to offshoring of jobs). But it highlights an important point about why free trade matters. Free trade is about as close to a...

It’s no secret that major rifts have opened up between advocates of free markets and social conservatives in recent years. As someone who (1) ascribes to what would be conventionally called socially conservative views (though I think they’re more accurately called the insights of natural law and right reason) and (2) regards a free market economy as the most prudent set of economic arrangements for munities, and nations, I find myself constantly exposed to these debates. In some cases, the...