Senator Marco Rubio’s interest in Catholic social teaching is exciting even if confused in its economic analysis and public policy mendations. On the Acton Line Podcast released today I discuss with Fr. Robert Sirico the promise and peril of politicians looking to Catholic social teaching for guidance. The promise is in grounding questions of politics in the true nature of the human person and society while the peril is in reducing Catholic social teaching to a mere set of public...

Britain’s 2019 General Election is unusual for many reasons. It’s not odd for British religious leaders to express their views about what they think their congregants should consider before they go to the polls. But the entire country was taken aback late last month when Britain’s mild-mannered Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (who heads what’s called the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth) published a public letter in the London Times in which he effectively advised people not to vote for...

Matthew Schmitz’s article “How classical liberals paved the way for white nationalists” in the Catholic Herald borrows a conceit from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Both place two unrelated phenomena in their titles for dramatic effect. Pirsig admitted his fictionalized autobiography “should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodoxZen Buddhistpractice. It’s not very factual onmotorcycles, either.” It is a pity Schmitz was not as ing about his column....

Every November 29, fans pause to remember George Harrison of The Beatles, who died in 2001. In addition to his sensitive lyrics, intricate melodies, and legendary chart-topping success Harrison should be remembered for another feat: He may have been the first singing supply-side economist. In a 1969 interview with David Wigg, Harrison showed profound insight into how taxes discourage work and wealth creation. “The shy Beatle,” as he was known, said: Britain in a way, you know, it cuts its...

Christians who oppose government intervention are often accused of harboring indifference, or antipathy, for the poor. But an abundance of evidence from two continents shows that welfare state policies actually reduce the wealth of the poor and raise prices, while benefiting the upper-middle class and well-connected corporations at taxpayers’ expense. A report from the European Central Bank analyzed 13 European nations and found that the higher the level of social welfare programs – the sort of entitlements many equate with...

“The Church changed its teaching on usury.” If I had ten cents for every time I have heard this, by now I might have enough to buy myself lunch – and more! However, if I had been collecting interest on that money, would I have earned enough to make me immoral? It seems to be a hard pill to swallow either way: is the classical teaching on usury wrong, or is the modern banking system wrong? It might be a...

“Our society needs reasoned faith,” writes Rachel Lu at Law and Liberty. “Fortunately, Samuel Gregg has reminded us with his recent book, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization.” In a review of Gregg’s latest book, Lu writes that it serves to remind us how faith and reason cannot flourish when separated and that bination is an integration that the West depends on. Faith and reason are not star-crossed lovers; they are literally a match made in Heaven. Gregg’s...

If you enjoyed a hearty Thanksgiving meal last week with your family, you have a personal incentive to oppose socialism. Extreme egalitarians would like to ban these kinds of family celebrations – by abolishing the family. The purveyors of woke ideology have long asserted that only collectivizing the family can bring true social equality. However, they are now casting the blame on the free market. As if suffering from a guilty conscience, the New York Times published an article the...

Sen. Marco Rubio’s recent proposals for mon good capitalism’ have sparked much criticism and praise. Rubio draws heavily from Catholic Social Teaching in his defense mon good capitalism, describing an ideal economy for mon good characterized by dignified work and stability for working families. On November 5, Rubio addressed students at the Catholic University of America, saying “[c]ommon good capitalism is about a vibrant and growing free market, but it is also about harnessing and channeling that growth for the...

We’ve seen a renewed focus among Christians on the deeper value and significance of our work, leading to plenty of fruitful reflection on how we might find and follow God in our economic lives. Yet this same realization has coincided with a growing cultural emphasis on self-actualization and the supposed glories of “doing what you love and loving what you do.” While we may be growing more attentive to the power of “vocation,” we’ve also begun to confuse and conflate...