Fulton Sheen’s Freedom Under God, I: The Importance of Property

Given that Fulton Sheen’s ‘beatification” is tomorrow, we thought we would take the opportunity to plug the “Just Third Way Edition” of Freedom Under God (1940), a “long lost” book by the new beatus.  As a caveat, of course, we state for the record that CESJ is not a Catholic or religious organization, the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is a universal, or “catholic-with-a-small-c” movement based on principles of natural law common to every human person, and Freedom Under God can be read by anyone of any faith or philosophy (or none) with profit.

JTW Podcast: The Great Ideas VIII, Labor and Leisure in Preindustrial and Industrial Societies

This week’s podcast continues the series on “the Great Ideas” with Mortimer Adler.  As the description of the video says, “This discussion establishes the moral, political and economic consequences of labor and leisure in human life.  The Great Ideas is a series devoted to discussions on the ‘basic ideas fundamental to man's everyday life.’

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 38

CESJ’s annual celebration is tomorrow, so we’re getting this out as fast as we can and should have more items directly related to the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism next week.  Until then, just sit around and wonder why no government has yet adopted the Economic Democracy Act:

De Tocqueville and the Act of Social Justice

We have uncovered [not-so-] SECRET DOCUMENTS exposing a [non-] CONSPIRACY at the HIGHEST LEVELS of . . . something or other.  It turns out that Pope Pius XI might not have come up with the “act of social justice,” his breakthrough in moral philosophy all by himself!  We have traced a description of the essential elements of the act of social justice to five years before Msgr. Luigi Aloysius Taparelli published his multi-volume Saggio Teoretico di Dritto Naturale Appoggiato sul Fatto (“A Theoretical Treatise on Natural Right Based on Fact”) in which he first used the term “social justice” in a clearly defined way, although he did not describe a particular defined act of social justice!!!!!!!!

JTW Podcast: The Economic Plight of Gen-Z

This week’s podcast is another episode of The Front Line with Joe & Joe featuring Dawn K. Brohawn and Michael D. Greaney from CESJ.  This episode asks the eternal (or at least this week’s) question, what are we to do about the economic plight of “Gen-Z” . . . or any other generation, for that matter.  The response, of course, is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 37

     This week’s news items are not very happy, but they are hopeful, in a sense.  CESJ is still here, the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is still being advanced, and the Initiative on Economic Personalism is still in the process of getting organized.  Perhaps it won’t be long before the Economic Democracy Act is adopted:

Dr. Norman G. Kurland: A Life in Pursuit of Economic Justice

 It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Norman Gerald Kurland on September 5, 2026, at his home in Arlington, Virginia. Born on April 27, 1930, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Norm is survived by his wife Marie Tsuchitani Kurland, children Dawn (Rowland) Brohawn, Michael (Barbara) Kurland, Daniel (Karen) Kurland, grandchildren Chris (Tori) Kurland, Hilary Kurland, David (Luka) Kurland, Mariel Kurland, and Joseph (Carly) Kurland, and great-grandsons Dominic and Calvin Kurland.

JTW Podcast: The Great Ideas VII, The Kinds of Work and the Dignity of Labor

    This week’s podcast is the seventh episode in Mortimer Adler’s television show, The Great Ideas and is a follow-up on “The Distinction of Work Play and Leisure” which we had last week.  As described in the YouTube blurb for this episode, “Dr. Adler explains the different kinds of work in a human life. He then makes a distinction between productive and non-productive labor, liberal and servile work.”

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 36

The Initiative on Economic Personalism is in the process of getting organized and progress is being made, although nothing that can yet be reported except to say it is going well.  As for the rest of the world, it appears that the need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible becomes more critical by the minute:

Doing the Right Thing

We have all heard it: the admonition, usually delivered with some degree of snarling, to “just do it” . . . usually what someone else thinks we ought to be doing without necessarily doing it themselves or who have no trouble doing it.  What, however, are you supposed to do when it simply isn’t possible to do the right thing — assuming, of course, that it is the right thing!