SLUH Review 1.10

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ET COGNOSCETIS VERITATEM ET VERITAS LIBERABIT VOS

SLUH REVIEW Vol. 1 Issue 10

A journal of Faith, thought, and civics

Centesimus Annus Revisited By Dominic Lanari, Writer

May 10, 2010

reasons, government interference in the economy must only occur in extreme cases. • “To sustain business activities by creating conditions which will ensure job opportunities, by stimulating those activities where they are lacking or by supporting them in moments of crisis.” • To intervene when monopolies become obstacles gravely and obviously impeding development. • To provide supplementary support to business systems who are “not equal to the task at hand” so long as the support is “justified by urgent reasons touching the common good [and] as brief as possible, so as to avoid removing permanently from society and business systems the functions which are properly theirs.”

In 1991, two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Empire, at a time when a great number of recently-freed countries were establishing new governments, Pope John Paul II graced the world with his indubitable wisdom in his papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Published exactly 100 years after Pope Leo XIII wrote his monumental compilation of the Church’s social doctrine in his own encyclical, Rerum Novarum (New Things), John Paul’s Centesimus Annus invited the world to take a look at the “new things” of their time. Because of certain restraints, this article will only present and discuss a small portion of the encyclical. However, I strongly encourage you to read the rest of it in its entirety if you get a chance. The knowledge you will obtain in doing so will be invaluable to you and those you interact with.

In order to prevent the quick expansion of the government while also providing stability in the market place, the rules above must be followed exactly. It is the responsibility of the citizens to diminish the need for the government in the economic sphere and the responsibility of the government to ensure the citizens feel the need to fulfill that task. As in nearly everything, a balance must be achieved.

Let us start with a concise outline of the role of the government/state in the economic sector (double quotations marks imply direct quote): • To ensure that “those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly.” • To oversee the protection of human rights in the economic sector. “However, primary responsibility in this area belongs no to the State but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society. The State could not directly ensure the right to work for all its citizens unless it controlled every aspect of economic life and restricted the free initiative of individuals.” The general incompetence of the State in the economic sector has been displayed repeatedly in history. For these

Naturally following an acceptance that both the citizens and the state have at least some role to play in the economic sphere is the acceptance and the promotion of subsidiarity. As Pope John Paul writes, “the principle of subsidiarity must be respected: a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions.” The American translation of this sentence is found in the Bill of Rights. It reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In other words, if some problem can be solved within a -1-


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