113. Social Justice

The government should protect the right of private ownership. Citizens are most contented when they have some property to call their own, on which they can depend for the necessities of the families and for maintenance in their old age. Problems of peace and order increase with the increase of people who have no property of their own to think about. Something is wrong when a country's wealth is in the hands of a limited few; everyone should be owner of something, however little.

What teachings of the Church related to social-economic matters are based on the seventh and tenth commandments?

— The teachings of the Church on social justice are based on the seventh and tenth commandments.

It is said that in Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891, the Church is not only collectively, but individually identified with the masses.

1. Social justice is the exercise of God-given individual rights taken in relation to the common welfare. In order to carry out its primary objective of sanctifying and saving men, the Church defines certain principles — of what we term "social justice" — applying the law of God to conditions of present-day economic life.

In these principles, the moral and economic spheres merge. The Church enunciates the application of equity, of justice, to certain matters, like relations between employer and employee, between rich and poor, between individuals and groups.

2. A person has obligations towards his fellow men; this fact is fundamental and immutable. If he fails to observe the obligations relating to the social-economic side of life, he sins against the seventh and tenth commandments.

Men are created equal, all being made to God's image, all destined for immortality. But there are natural inequalities, arising from physical, mental, material causes. A person must not exploit the inequalities, taking advantage of those less fortunate.

3. The most important documents summarizing the attitude of the Church on social justice are the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, and Quadragesimo Anno of Pius XI.

These encyclicals have formed the basis of many an existing political doctrine on social justice. If we would follow their teachings, we should not be continually violating the seventh and tenth commandments, causing jealousies and enmities among different social classes as among nations. If we would only obey the teachings of the Church, there would be none of the "isms" that today infest the earth.

4. Social justice defines not only rights, but duties as well; it enunciates principles regarding labour and capital; it defines rights of living wage and of private ownership.

Pope Leo XIII said, "It must be within man's right to possess things, not merely for temporary and momentary use, as other living things do, but to hold them in stable and permanent possession."

5. Many of the present ills of the world, including international jealousies and wars, arise from economic causes.

Many so-called "moderns" hold an attitude of contempt towards the teaching of the Church on the matter, in the false assumption that the Church should concern itself merely with prayers and religious ceremonial. But the Church was established to lead men to eternal salvation; and it cannot fulfil its mission unless it warn men against everything that endangers their salvation.

From the moral point of view, what are the purposes of economic life?

— From the moral point of view the purposes of economic life are the following:

1. God-given resources such as those of the land, as well as human skills, must be developed for the benefit of God's children.

2. The motive of profit must always give way to the motive of the moral law.

3. God's gifts should be distributed in an equitable manner.

4. Everyone should be provided with useful employment in accordance with his abilities and needs, and with his dignity as a human being created by God.

5. The State, as instrument of the common good, has the duty to intervene in economic life, for that purpose of the common good, of either the group or of the individual. But man and his family always have priority over the State.

6. There must always be cooperation in the economic life, between those who work and those who own.

Why is private ownership a right?

— Private ownership is a right because every man has a right to life, and to all means necessary for the purposes of life.

On account of their importance to the social group, certain types of property should be under the control of either the State or of other groups of public ownership.

1. In order to preserve his life, man has a right to gain for himself and keep as his own those goods he needs for his subsistence. The possession of external goods indispensable to man's earthly existence, such as food, clothes, a home, and similar things, is a natural right.

2. It may, however, be said that the present distribution of wealth is not quite in accordance with the will of God; it cannot be pleasing to Him that a small minority should enjoy an excess of property, while an overwhelming majority can hardly keep body and soul together.

3. Private ownership is a right because if every moment of a person's life were occupied in providing for his daily maintenance, he would have nothing to sustain him in cases of illness or misfortune. Besides, in such a case, he would have no leisure in which to attend to the interests of his soul.

One is moreover bound to provide for those dependent on him, and this can only be done if he can keep property above what is absolutely needful.

4. Private ownership is limited by moral obligations and should be subjected to social restrictions for the common good.

Some limitations on the right of private ownership are: (a) just title to ownership; (b) the urgency of the need for others; and (c) expropriation by the State for the public welfare, but with just compensation.

5. Both Communism and Fascism are errors, because they establish the godhood of the State. Communism confiscates all private property for the State, and aims to provide for the wants of everybody out of public funds.

Besides being impracticable, the idea of Communism violates individual and family rights. The State is merely empowered to supervise and regulate the acquisition and disposal of property for the common good, with justice to everyone. The State is for the people, and not the people for the State. Far from wronging the citizens, the State must aim at the welfare of each and all. Neither has the State any right to take Church property. To rob a man is theft; to rob God is sacrilege.