Private Property in Magnifica Humanitas

We have been saying for years that many people get fundamental principles wrong.  This is understandable given the state of education today, but it still doesn’t make it right.  As people like Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler have been warning for about a century or more, schooling has degenerated from actual education, to job training, and finally to ideological indoctrination.  This is important because it’s one thing to issue an encyclical, and quite another to have it understood, and understanding comes at a high premium today.

Making Sense of Social Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

A Guide to Understanding Magnifica Humanitas is Now Available in Spanish

 

(Arlington, Virginia, USA, May 15, 2026) Justice University Press, an imprint of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), a think tank promoting a free market, private property-based approach to widespread capital ownership without redistribution, is pleased to announce the release of Personalismo Económico: Propiedad, Poder y Justicia para Cada Persona (ISBN: 978-1-60210-011-4), a book applying the personalist thought of Pope John Paul II. Translated into Spanish by Dr. María Teresa Rosón de Pérez Lozano of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, Personalismo Económico makes Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person (2020) by Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn available to a new audience.

A short but substantive work, Personalismo Económico presents a summary of natural law moral principles and sound methods of finance designed to establish and maintain economic justice for all. In English or in Spanish, Personalismo Económico is an essential orientation to understand and advance the message of Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical for people of all faiths and philosophies everywhere.

Dar Sentido a la Justicia Social

PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA

DAR SENTIDO A LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL

Una guía para comprender Magnifica Humanitas ya está disponible en español

 

(Arlington, Virginia, EE. UU., 15 de mayo de 2026) Justice University Press, una editorial del Centro para la Justicia Económica y Social (CESJ), un grupo de expertos que promueve un enfoque de libre mercado basado en la propiedad privada para una propiedad generalizada del capital sin redistribución, se complace en anunciar el lanzamiento de Personalismo Económico: Propiedad, Poder y Justicia para Cada Persona (ISBN: 978-1-60210-011-4), un libro que aplica el pensamiento personalista del Papa Juan Pablo II. Traducido al español por la Dra. María Teresa Rosón de Pérez Lozano de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina en Buenos Aires, Personalismo Económico pone a disposición de una nueva audiencia Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person (2020) de Michael D. Greaney y Dawn K. Brohawn.

Una obra breve pero sustantiva, Personalismo Económico presenta un resumen de los principios morales de la ley natural y métodos sólidos de finanzas diseñados para establecer y mantener la justicia económica para todos. En inglés o en español, Personalismo Económico es una orientación esencial para comprender y promover el mensaje de la nueva encíclica del Papa León XIV para personas de todas las religiones y filosofías en todo el mundo.

A New Encyclical . . . So What?

Word on the street is Pope Leo XIV is issuing a new “encyclical” on May 15, 2026.  The document, provisionally titled Magnifica Humanitas (hmmm . . .) is expected to be a follow-up on Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 effort, Rerum Novarum, “On Labor and Capital,” which some (erroneously, if it matters) consider the first “social encyclical.”

Where is Pope Leo XIV Coming From?

The election of a new pope has repercussions far beyond the Catholic Church, Christianity, and even all religion.  Especially since the Catholic Church became a truly international organization with the loss of the Papal States in the 19^th century, people of goodwill everywhere look to the head of the Catholic Church as a voice for good, even if they do not always agree with what he says.

Vladimir Putin and the New Christianity

 

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s worldview is not entirely connected with reality, i.e., does not constitute “truth.”   Truth, of course, means conformity with reality.  Anytime you hear someone prating of a higher truth that goes beyond reality, he (or she) is lying, is mistaken, or is simply ignorant.

Vladimir Putin’s Weird Worldview

 

This past Sunday, May 15, 2022, an article appeared in the Washington Post that cast some light on the beliefs and antics of Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin, “The Far-Right Mystical Writer Who Helped Shape Putin’s View of Russia” (p. B-4).  It was written by Tara Isabella Burton, author of Strange Rites (2020), a book which examines the odd turns that religion has taken in the United States, especially under the influence of what Pope Gregory XVI in 1834 called rerum novarum, “New Things,” today better known as socialism, modernism, and the New Age.

Can Distributism Rebuild Ukraine?

 

The quick and easy answer to the question as to whether distributism can be used to rebuild Ukraine is yes — if the current keepers of the flame can either be convinced that their understanding of distributism might be a little off (or others can see it for themselves), some of the flaws in distributism as it has often been presented are corrected, and the authentic vision of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc is implemented.  To do that, of course, we need to know what distributism really is, not what it was transformed into even before Chesterton’s death.

An Unexpected Christmas Message

No, really, it’s still Christmas.  Despite the common belief that “the Christmas Season” starts the day after Thanksgiving (or, for some, after Independence Day) and runs until 9:00 am on December 25, Christmas actually begins at sundown on December 24 and runs for the next dozen days . . . although we’re off the hook regarding gifts, unless you include or hold off until January 6.

Reign of Christ the King?

In the previous posting on this subject, we saw that while God made the world, he didn’t create human society.  Human beings did that, so it’s no use blaming Him for what’s going wrong.  If there’s something wrong, it’s up to us to fix it.  The only question is how . . . especially when we discover that individually we are pretty helpless to effect changes in the social order.  What happens then?

G.K. Chesterton v. “Some American Crank”

In the previous posting on this subject, we reviewed the influence of Henry George on the Fabian Society, and the influence of the Fabian Society.  Nor was the Fabian Society the only group influenced by George, and that influenced others, including groups and individuals in the Catholic Church.  More immediate in its effect on understanding of social justice — or, rather, misunderstanding — was the power wielded by Monsignor John A. Ryan of the Catholic University of America.

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

They say that the easiest way to hide something is in open sight; with a hat tip to Samuel Rosenberg’s 1974 Sherlockian showcase (okay, you find a better one), “naked is the best disguise.”  In other words, be so obvious about what you’re doing that nobody will believe you really mean it . . like the Fabian Society adopting the “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” as their emblem, telling people they were going to make everybody socialist, but just call it something else. . . .

The Socialist Counterattack

In the previous posting on this subject we saw that Pope Lei XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum knocked both capitalists and socialists for a loop.  It was not long, however, before both groups had figured out ways to keep on doing what they were already doing and claim papal endorsement.  Of the two, however, the socialists took the initiative, as they were the ones most obviously targeted.

The Secret History of Rerum Novarum

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the agrarian socialist Henry George managed to make his brand of “the Democratic Religion” headline news throughout the English-speaking world in 1886 and 1887 by running for mayor of New York City . . . although people wonder to this day just what it was he expected to be able to do once he was in charge of the Big Apple.  New York may be the center of the universe (especially if you’re a New Yorker), but even the center of the universe isn’t the entire universe or even the whole state of New York.

The Struggle for Sanity

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject — not that we’re particularly pushing Catholicism — but the Catholic Church has from the beginning been the only consistent opponent of socialism and moral relativism in the modern world.  As G.K. Chesterton noted in the introduction he wrote to the published version of Fulton Sheen’s doctoral thesis, God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy (1925), the Catholic Church is pretty much the “last man standing” when it comes to defending common sense in the world today.

Reason and Infallibility

In the previous posting on this subject, we went into the various ways that popes prior to Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum tried to counter socialism and moral relativism.  The bottom line here, of course, is that trying to educate people in sound philosophy and democratic political principles wasn’t going anywhere without the personal power in the hands of ordinary people who remained at the mercy of those who controlled property and thus political and economic power.  When someone controls how you are allowed to live, they soon make great inroads into how you think or believe.

The Frustrated Reformer

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, when economic, political, social and even religious conditions deteriorated badly in the early nineteenth century, people turned to socialism to make things rights again.  Unfortunately, people didn’t want to hear why something they wanted was wrong, they wanted something that would help them immediately.

The Pope Condemns the New Things

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the circumstances that resulted in the first social encyclical, Mirari Vos, in 1832.  It turns out that Pope Gregory XVI condemned the Polish November Uprising of 1830-1831 because it was taken over by the socialists and a forged encyclical had been circulated calling on people to rise up and destroy the Church and abolish private property.

What Happened in Poland

History, as they say, is written by the victors.  The problem with history-as-she-is-taught these days is that what passes for history sadly seems to fit that rather glib aphorism, especially when the subject is politics and religion, which pretty much sums up virtually the whole of history.

The Renegade Abbé

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the “theory of certitude” led its developer, Félicité de Lamennais straight into modernism and socialism.  That is why Charles Perín believed him to be the first modernist, although that is a somewhat dubious honor.  It also explains why Pope Gregory XVI, who is generally regarded by liberals and radicals of both a religious and non-religious stripe as a reactionary monster, was actually concerned about the effect that de Lamennais’s theories would have — and were having — on the meaning of Christianity and even religion itself.