Thoughts on Responding to Magnifica Humanitas

There has been a good deal of discussion and analysis done on Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical.  This is, of course, only to be expected, as are the usual comments about the true aims and goals of the Catholic Church’s social encyclicals.  Consequently, everyone talks about what is in them, but not what they are, and especially not what social justice is or how to understand it.

How to Be a Socially Just Person

Last week, in “A Little Creative Misdirection and Misunderstanding,” we addressed the issue of whether people should decide for themselves which laws they want to obey.  Of course, ultimately that is something everyone does anyway, but we were looking at it from the perspective of people as members of society, not as individuals with no connection to others.

How to Be Both a Good Person and a Good Citizen

 In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the belief that you can decide for yourself whether to obey a law, good or bad, and whether such a decision excuses you from taking the penalties for breaking the law.

A Short Course in Social Justice, I: What is Social Justice?

Ask anybody.  Go ahead.  We dare you.  For best results, carry a microphone and have somebody pointing a videocam at you and whoever (or whatever) you are asking.  And the question? “What is social justice?”

The Meaning and Purpose of Life, IV: The Maker’s Answer

In the first and third parts of this article we — or rather our guest blogger Guy Stevenson — asked questions.  In Part I the question was, “Why do I exist?”  In Part III, the question was, “What is social justice?”  Today Guy gives Fulton Sheen’s version of “The Maker’s Answer.”

The Meaning and Purpose of Life, III: What is Social Justice?

 Last week we looked at the question of “justice as love.”  This week we look at the question of “social justice”.  This will baffle many people today, because they think they have already answered the question, and the answer they have is that something called “social justice” replaces and transcends both justice and charity as traditionally understood.

The Meaning and Purpose of Life, II: Justice as Love

In Part I of this article, we looked at the question, “Why do I exist?” as answered by the legendary Fulton Sheen.  Admittedly, Sheen’s answer was framed within a specific philosophy and religious faith, but that takes nothing away from its universality.  To summarize, the meaning and purpose of life is to become more fully human by conforming yourself to human nature.

The Economic Answer to AI, II: The Spread of the Problem

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted — consistent with the Past Savings and the Sole Ownership assumptions combined with the Labor Theory of Value — most of “the rest of us” in the present day are constrained to wages and welfare for our subsistence.  Government policy has thus been focused on (as one of the founders of the Center for Economic and Social Justice used to put it while mimicking playing a cello) “jawbs, jawbs, jawbs” . . . with no thought as to what was behind the, er, “jawbs.”

The Rich are Different

 Ordinary people’s reactions regarding the possibility of getting the Economic Democracy Act adopted soon — or at all, for that matter — often take the form of asserting “they” won’t go for it or allow it.  And who are “they”?  The rich, the powerful, those who rely on the rich and powerful or want to, or who are afraid of them.

Dignity, Sovereignty, Faith, and Reason

In today’s posting, we’re taking a look at some basic principles of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.  As we understand it, the Just Third Way begins and ends with the dignity and sovereignty of the human person. Any plan, program, activity, or thought contrary to or which undermines the dignity or sovereignty of the human person must be rejected or reformed to the point where it either enhances human dignity or at least does no material harm.

Fulton Sheen, Social Justice, Solidarism, and Economic Personalism

There has been a spate of memes in the social media recently ostensibly quoting the late Fulton Sheen to the effect that Judas is the patron saint of social justice.  This does not ring true for a couple of reasons. Most obviously, Sheen, “the American Chesterton,” was a master of language and witty repartee, skilled at making an otherwise subtle nuance plain, albeit in a clever manner.  The statement is just too crude and blunt; it is not Sheen’s style.

Is It Really “Too Complicated”?

The halls of justice (or should that be “the howls of justice”?) rang recently with protests to the effect mentioning economic and social justice — at a meeting of the Center for Economic and Social Justice(!) — is “too complicated” and turns people off (“they just roll their eyes”).  The complaints got louder when some of us tried to explain why you just can’t say “you’ll have more money” to explain economic justice and ignore social justice altogether as having been hijacked by the socialists.

Putin’s Tiger by the Tail

According to Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University in a recent article in Business Insider, Putin has put Russia into a “lose-lose” position.  In a “tiger by the tail” scenario, the country cannot afford to continue the war against Ukraine, but neither can it afford to stop.  According to Foucart’s analysis, the Russian economy has become so dependent on the war that “defense” spending is the only thing keeping up the illusion of viability.

The Political Animal

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, being true to oneself means conforming to one’s human nature.  By doing so, people become more fully human by acquiring and developing virtue (“human-ness”).  If done at all, this is the work of a lifetime and the hardest path to follow.

The Framework of Economic Justice: Social Justice, the Feedback and Corrective Principle

Today’s blog posting is a selection from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Today’s posting requires a little explanation.  In general, social justice is the virtue that acts directly on the common good and indirectly on individual good.  The idea that social justice is simply a replacement for individual charity and justice when those two virtues fail to operate or operate effectively is a complete misunderstanding of social justice.

The Framework of Economic Justice: The Out-Take Principle

Today’s blog posting is a selection from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Today we look at distributive justice, the “out-take principle” that governs distributions from a common endeavor.  Distributive justice, in one sense, is an individual virtue built on commutative justice, commutative justice being the most basic form of justice.

It’s Not an Either/Or Issue

Occasionally, we feel the urge to explain a little about social justice.  This is usually prompted by a comment or question from a faithful reader or two.  This time it was sparked by a comment someone made on FaceBook about how they aren’t interested in helping people one-on-one, but in changing the system that makes it necessary to help people.

The “Characteristics of Social Justice”

Today’s blog posting is a selection from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we may have mentioned a few thousand times on this blog, personalist social justice is distinguished from the collectivist and individualist version by not being a substitute for charity or a euphemism for redistribution.  Need-based distribution is individual charity, except in cases of “extreme need” when it falls under distributive justice as an expedient.  Personalist social justice is the virtue concerned with restructuring the social order to make it possible for people to take care of themselves.

The “Laws of Social Justice”

Today’s blog posting is a selection from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Louis Kelso’s and Mortimer Adler’s breakthroughs in moral philosophy (with the principles of economic justice) and in economics and finance (with future savings) were “the missing links” in Catholic social teaching. Combined with Pius XI’s definition of social justice, Kelso’s and Adler’s financial systems concept and principles of economic justice — connecting economic personalism with economic justice — made a truly personalist social order possible as explicit policy for the first time in history.

The Great American Chocolate Philanthropist

It is impossible to say anything about chocolate and America without mentioning the Hershey Company of Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Milton Snavely Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1883, having failed at three previous attempts to establish confectionaries in different cities across the country.  Although successful in caramel production, he became fascinated with chocolate after seeing modern chocolate making machinery at the Chicago Exposition in 1893.