The currency of the ‘regular world’ begins with the physical: property and work.  For humans, survival requires these forms.  How property and work have been socially constructed in our contemporary society is unique to us.  The Catholic Social Teaching (CSTch) addressed these social dimensions, but through the lens of the gospel.  That is like trying to mix oil and water (i.e., religion and economics).  The papal authors had no choice but to dive into the melee of economic angst and offer a reflection on how Christians ought to handle themselves and treat others in the economic realm. 

The philosopher John Locke claims that property is a natural human right.  He conjectures that when a human inserts taxing effort and creativity to change natural conditions this person rightly becomes the owner of it.  The farmer who clears the land, levels it, tills the soil, plants a crop, and harvests the produce is de facto the owner of this territory, now called “his field.”  The farmer transformed the “fallow land” into something productive for human survival and exchange.  Granted all of these terms are anthropocentric, but that is how humans view the planet and act upon it (We could analyze what difference sedentary existence has made on humanity and history, but that is beyond the scope of this column).  But when humans push this capacity to alter the environment for survival benefits to something more excessive, ecological and social problems appear.  That is what the CSTch discusses.

Regarding property, the CSTch affirms the right to private ownership.   This is based on philosophy, not a dictum of the Scriptures.  However, ownership is never absolute.  In other words, God is the true owner of all things, including our souls, and no one takes anything with her when she dies.  The purpose of property is for surviving, even human thriving.  Thus all persons need basic amounts of property to survive.  In the modern world, property includes money (e.g., wages and rents).

The disparate distribution of property/money is unavoidable in the human condition, say the popes, but charity must redress the extreme lack of property among any humans.  This is a constant exhortation to the wealthy, which goes back to early Christianity (cf. Acts 2, 4).  The Teaching does not condemn wealth accumulation (as long as it is honorably acquired), but the wealthy are obliged to tithe and give alms of any excess.

The understanding of work has taken a 180-degree turn.  For a long time it was seen as a penalty for Original Sin (Gen 3:17), but now the nobility of work is recognized.  This is most clearly articulated in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “On Human Labor” (Laborem Excercens).  The realm of work, because it is a human artifice, needs to include virtues: diligence, honesty, justice.  The most difficult aspect of the work realm is a just distribution of wages.  Wages are the single most contentious factor in economy; workers strive to find some way to negotiate for better wages (e.g., unions).  The Popes fear the social chaos of strikes, but eventually permit such actions when companies resist the exhortation to give just remuneration (Populorum Progressio).

Finally, development is a newer concept in the social realm.  Since industrialization and super-production and distribution of goods, development has denoted a better material life.  The Popes have stretched the term to include human (Populoro Progressio, 1967) and moral development (Centesimus Annus, 1991) of humankind.  The persistence of dire “have-nots” leaves the Popes asking (begging) for creative and just solutions to their plight, which often rests in the hands of corporate enterprise.