Cardinal Tomasi Address to CAPP, December 2021
Catholic Social Teaching: A New Methodology for a New Economy
The Challenge to CAPP
“How do we …as Fondazione, make Catholic Social Teaching clear and relevant to those fashioning the new economy?”
An Answer
Recast how we read the ‘signs of the times’
Catholic Social Teaching for a New Economy by Cardinal Tomasi Silvano
Vatican II approach: “To see (to study the facts); To judge (to apply moral, theological, and spiritual perspective); And to act (to take those tangible steps to resolve the issue at hand).”
New (Pope Francis’) approach:
- “To contemplate (to engage the situation or issue affectively as well as intellectually).
- To discern, (to allow the complexity and even contradictions of the reality to come into focus).
- To propose (to foment solutions by inviting others to ponder and contribute to the desired outcomes).”
“Pope Francis’ methodology is important because it allows us to engage the current situation in its fuller complexity.”
TO CONTEMPLATE
“Contemplation requires that we immerse ourselves in the world, engaging with our hearts the world’s suffering and hopes as well as its empirical data.” Why? To rethink “the outdated criteria which continue to rule the world.” (Pope Francis, 2)
THE ISSUES
1. “The global economy is in the midst of an epochal change…The Fourth Industrial Revolution…propelled by technology, including ever more pervasive Artificial Intelligence.”
2. “Financialization…with a turn away from ethics to more predatory business practices that prioritize profits over prosperity” leading to “ever-more aggressive self-interest”.
3. “The relentless pressure to commodify work — and to reduce all human endeavor to a bottom-line calculation”.
However, proposals for a “more inclusive capitalism” and ESG are not the solution since “no mention is ever made of the required moral conversion, with its urgent ethical dimensions” This results in a “marginalization of ethics, and privatization of morality”.
WHAT CAPP IS CALLED TO DO
“Rethink and influence the…new economy with precepts from Catholic Social Teaching.” Ensuring “that the Fourth Industrial paradigm will be revolutionary for its humanizing aims and moral outcomes.”
“Pope Francis’ methodology is important because it allows us to engage the current situation in its fuller complexity.”
TO DISCERN
Discernment requires us “to allow the complexity and even contradictions of the reality to come into focus”.
THE ISSUES
“Why have we not begun the deep change our economy and world need”? “Why the recurring resistance to obviously needed change?”
“Pope Francis perceives that our many crises share a common cause…‘the hyper-inflation of the individual’”.
“As we know from monetary policy, inflation is a synonym for devaluation. Individualism taken to this inflationary extreme, not only excludes social responsibilities, but also isolates, damages, and even destroys the person.”
Pope Francis calls this “radical individualism” which “makes us believe that everything consists in giving free reign to our own ambitions” and to “an ‘individualized conscience’” where “morality no longer exists as an objective ideal or social imperative.”
When “Everything becomes merely personal preference “it fuels both hatred and self-loathing… rather than the common good of every human person.” Benedict XVI also united Solidarity and Subsidiarity.
WHAT CAPP IS CALLED TO DO
“At a moment when the economy and its leaders and participants need moral guidance” how do we provide it?
“Catholic Social Teaching is the antidote for this virus; the medicine we need for the malady of profit without conscience. Dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, care for family and God’s creation, the common good, and the preferential option for the poor are moral truths that we embrace as
Catholics”.
The Fondazione must work to make Catholic Social Teaching “relevant to those fashioning the new economy”.
And this is important! “Scholars, anthropologists, and philosophers who have studied societies in crisis affirm two lessons: – Those that successfully rebuild…foster shared values and dreams; – Meanwhile, those that fail or disintegrate do so because they exclude social justice considerations and concentrate on recreating the previous status-quo.”
TO PROPOSE
“The outcome from discernment is…to propose and invite dialogue. So, what specific proposals can we make to the world of business from Catholic Social Teaching?’
- Focus on family, work and community. “These [are] the fundamental aspects of [human] dignity.”
- Dare to dream! “As Pope Francis showed in his apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia…Dreaming is constitutive of dignity: without dreams we are indeed robots and slaves.”
- Have “the courage to change not only [your] mind, but also [your] beliefs…This ability to change radically echoes one of the teachings from Spe Salvi, “Science does not redeem man…man is redeemed by love.” So, we must dare to confront current dogmas.
- “We especially need…a preferential option for the most vulnerable…True solidarity embraces those most vulnerable at the far periphery of politics and the economy.”
- “Protect the rights of workers” and those who “have been thrown away, rendered discarded and disposable as if merely another consumer item.” “Pope Francis has challenged [this] ‘dictatorship of an impersonal economy’”.
- Practice “personal subsidiarity”. I.e., “Support God’s plan rather than control it.”
- Remember the “power of prayer, particularly as contemplation and listening…As much as Catholic Social Teaching inspires us to act, its spiritual essence and motivation must flow from prayer.”
“Individualism taken to this inflationary extreme, not only excludes social responsibilities, but also isolates, damages, and even destroys the person.”
“SO, IN CONCLUSION, WHAT DO WE PROPOSE?”
1. To “help us tackle the structural equalities…we need a new ethics of the common good [forged in solidarity] as the basis for policy making”.
“In Centesimus Annus, St. Pope John Paul II reminded us that our Catholic tradition calls for ‘a society of free work, of enterprise, and of participation. Such a society is not directed against the market but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of society and by the State, so as to guarantee that the basic needs of the whole of society are satisfied.” (#35)”
2. “We need to restore the dignity of dreaming to unleash the spirit of human ingenuity and creativity…recalling the social teaching in Centesimus Annus, ‘the human being is the primary route that the church must travel to fulfill its mission.’ (53)”
The economy must meet “the fundamental criteria for human hopes as well as for business productivity.” “[W]e must insist that the common good economy furnish possibilities as well as profits”.
3. “We need to…forge authentic policies and transformative practices for sustainable development…which means undoing what is unsustainable — breaking the patterns that protect privilege and power”.
“Undoing what is unsustainable means undoing: Inequality; unlimited consumption; exploitation of workers; human trafficking; and profits without ethics.”
4. We must assume and play our role! “In the end, each of us has a role to play. Each of us have been given unique talents and special gifts with which to contribute to an economy that enriches integrally, the body, mind, soul of the person, and the sense of freedom, participation, accountability and resilience in the community.”
WHAT CAPP IS CALLED TO DO
“To be the ‘sign of the cross’ in our world. That is to say:
a. preserve and cherish God’s creation.
b. work to extend the dignity of the Incarnation to our most vulnerable sisters and brothers.
c. through prayer and contemplation, cooperate with the Holy Spirit to help fashion an economy of conscience and compassion.”
And to “Offer the talents of the Fondazione to the synodal process, especially in regard to Church governance, and management of people, assets, projects, and mission.”
Note: All unattributed quotes are from Cardinal Tomasi’s original address linked below.
