Catholic Capitalism: Applying Scripture and Catholic Social Doctrine in Everyday Life, Work And

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Learn to do good; seek justice (Is 1:17).

Imagine that one day, a stranger approaches you on the street and out of the blue they ask you this question, "Are you going to heaven?" How would you react? What would you say? Many people would immediately look for a path to get away from this stranger as fast as possible. Others would tell the stranger that they are being rude and that it is none of their business. But, just for a moment, reflect upon what you would say to this stranger.

As Christians and Catholics, the one thing we all share in common is our desire to live an eternal life in heaven with God our Father (One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life (Ps 27:4). While none of us look forward to being accosted on the street by a stranger and asked this very personal question, it is in fact a question that each of us must ask ourselves on a regular basis. It serves as a kind of spiritual update on where we stand in relation to our lifelong quest for eternal life. After all, the answer to this question will determine our eternal condition. Is it not something that we should think about, therefore, and know, just in case there is still some work to be done before it is too late? Our answer goes to the very heart of who we are and whether or not we are living our life in full accordance with the Word of Jesus Christ. Thus, under our own circumstances and in our own lives, how many of us would or could stop and respond to the stranger by saying, Yes!

Before you decide to close this book after having read just two paragraphs and think, The nerve of this guy, who does he think he is, asking me such a personal question, I want to assure you that I am not going to ask you this question and I do not want to know your answer. It is none of my business. But, it is very much your business to know. I do want you to ask yourself this question and I do want you to know your answer. You need to know. As Christians and Catholics we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the eyes of God, we are family. We should care about our family and about each other, and we should pray that each of us is able to find our way into eternal life in heaven. There are many things I do not know about life, but I do know one thing for certain as both a Christian and a Catholic, and that one thing is that on our final day, our Savior is going to ask us this very same question and we are only going to have one chance to answer it. No more. Therefore, we need to think about it.

Jesus Christ has told us that I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life … the hour is coming … For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself … And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man … Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me (Jn 5:24-30). A recurring message from Jesus in the Gospels was about our seeing and hearing so that we would find salvation. He told us to hear Him and to see His wondrous deeds so that we may believe and be saved. Jesus also warned us that if we closed our eyes and ears to Him because we had hardened our hearts against God, then we would not know the kingdom of heaven. As He spoke to the apostles, Christ gave us the blessing that we all yearn for in faith. He said that when we not only hear His words but also listen to them, and when we open our eyes in faith, we would understand Him with our hearts and He would then heal us (cf. Mt 13:13-17).

A reasonable question to ask is What was it that Jesus wanted us to hear and see? Some of the things He wanted us to see are self-evident. He wanted us to see the unconditional love that God has for each one of us and He wanted us to show reciprocal love to each other and to our neighbors. He wanted us to see the danger of placing wealth and money above God, and to see the injustices that are done to the poor and the suffering when greed and pride prevail in the minds of the rich. In addition, Jesus wanted us to see Him as the living example of our obligation to serve others with a loving heart and without any expectation that we should receive something in return. Christ wanted us to hear His message of peace, virtue, and faith. He also wanted us to hear the message that hypocrisy and deception were the choice of a fool, and that God will condemn those who are pretenders in faith. These are just a few of the things Jesus wanted us to see and hear, so we would understand that our path to heaven was paved in truth and honest compassion for those most in need of our love and service.

As you will read in the opening chapter of this book and throughout the developing text, Catholic Social Doctrine (CSD) starts with the teachings found in Sacred Scripture. It all starts with the Word of Jesus Christ. As the world began to change in dramatic fashion with the coming of the first industrial revolution, the Catholic Church could not ignore the coinciding changes that were occurring in first world societies. The dominant agrarian economies of the 18th century began to give way to new urbanization and the proliferation of modernized capitalist economies. These new capitalist systems were transforming the way that people lived, worked, and spent money. They were also creating vast amounts of new wealth that was accruing mainly to the benefit of those who controlled the access to financial capital and the means of production. The workers in the new factories and the laborers providing services, everything from extracting raw materials for production to domestic work, were being exploited more and more, so that the emerging capitalists could grow their wealth while maximizing pecuniary profits. The Church recognized that this emergent form of capitalism was creating many new problems in society for the disenfranchised and the working poor. There were issues of long hours and low wages, insufficient and unhealthy housing, dangerous working conditions, and an intensifying shift away from the primacy of the human person in favor of the capitalist holy grail, the maximized return on investment and an unquenchable thirst for profit.

In 1891, on behalf of the Church, Pope Leo XIII started to address these developing social issues by writing a papal encyclical with the title Rerum Novarum [On Capital and Labor]. An encyclical is a formal letter written by a Catholic Pope and it is usually addressed to the bishops of the Church and to the faithful. It is written on an important issue of high priority to the Church and it has the effect of explaining or setting out Church doctrine in regard to the subject matter. In this instance, Pope Leo XIII was writing about how Sacred Scripture and the Church viewed the economic and social issues that were affecting the owners of capital and the means of production, workers, labor, society in general, and the moral and spiritual health of everyone involved in the process. Rerum Novarum became the first of many papal writings on the subject and it is agreed to be the beginning of what we now refer to as that body of teachings under the rubric of CSD.

Sometimes referred to as Catholic Social Teaching, CSD has been what many describe as the best-kept secret of the Catholic Church. Many Catholics today still have never heard the term used during a homily at Mass. As an example, I consider myself, for lack of a better word, an ‘average’ Catholic; one who could be described as a cradle-to-grave Catholic. The first twelve years of my education were spent in Catholic parochial school and Catholic high school. During those years, I have no recollection of ever hearing about CSD. In addition, I have attended Mass for almost six decades and it was not until 2016 that I first heard the term used in a homily. Further, to the best of my recollection, during that almost six decades as a Christian and Catholic, I do not remember a single priest or nun telling me that this beautiful and thoughtful social doctrine had been developed to help me understand how to live my life as a follower of Jesus Christ. The first time I read a papal document, a letter that had been written by a Pope, was in 2005. I had stumbled upon that letter inadvertently, while researching the meaning of a Bible verse. Imagine my surprise! I had the great fortune of reading a letter that had been written by Saint (then Pope) John Paul II. That letter would proceed to change my life.

Even though I am an average Catholic, I have been blessed with an above average education. After those first 12 years in Catholic schools, I eventually went on to study Economics, Political Science, and Law in college. Because I had to work while I went to college, it took me another 10 years to finish it. As you might guess, through all those years of college and then the practice of law for almost three decades, I have read many tens of thousands and more likely hundreds of thousands of pages of books, articles, case law, legal briefs, news, and literature. I both was and still am an avid reader. But as many Catholics have a shared experience and know for themselves, while growing up in Catholic school (taught by nuns, brothers, and priests) and attending Mass all these years, there was no sense of urgency conveyed upon me to seek out and read the Bible on my own, or to explore the writings of the Popes. The Bible was read to me in class and from the altar, and then the priests explained the biblical passages as they delivered their homilies. I learned a great deal about the teachings of Jesus Christ this way and I also learned to live by what I referred to in my own mind as a kind of ‘Catholic code’ of life. I did not know what it was called. It was sacramental, it was doctrinal, and it was taught to me as I grew up in this Christian environment. I followed this code as best as I could and when I made a mistake, I sought forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But for many years, I did not understand the Word of Jesus Christ as a message delivered by Him to me in a close personal relationship. I believed in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and I sought eternal life in heaven. However, I was not sure how to get there or what I was supposed to do on a day-to-day basis. I tried to do my best and I hoped and prayed that it was enough.

The greatest blessing that I ever received in life was to live one block away from a little girl named Christina. We met when I was 12 years old. We attended the same schools, the same church, and shared some mutual friends. Little did I know at the time, but we were destined to spend our lives together as husband and wife. Christina was a good Catholic girl. Of course, she had her moments when she was young, but by the time she had become my wife, she was a devout woman of faith and a Catholic through and through. She put me to shame with her faith. But there was one thing Christina did that was different than other Catholics I knew. She read the Bible. During the early years of our marriage, she read a paperback Catholic Bible. Sometime later on, she switched over to an old King James translation. I watched her for 25 years read her Bible. She would tell me stories about the things she had read. She was not vocal about her faith and no one knew this about her except myself. Each night she would read some part of her Bible and then pray, seemingly for everyone, and she would not go to sleep until she had finished her prayers. I had many times tried to read her Bible, but the King’s English would always get me in the end and I would put it down. But she never gave up on me. She would tell me year after year that I should make time to read the Bible. She would say, You might learn something.

Just before I stumbled upon the letter of Saint John Paul II, I had gone to a used bookstore to look for something. I do not even recall why I went to the store that day. But as I am a rather tall man, I always have to squat or kneel down in bookstores to see the books on the lower shelves. That particular day, I was squatting or kneeling and I was bracing myself with my left hand on one of the middle bookshelves. By serendipity (but most likely not), when I straightened up I found my hand resting on a red leather-covered book. It was a New King James edition of the Bible. I opened it up and saw words that were written in plain English. It was written in my own language, the language that I spoke. I bought the Bible that day and I still read it today. It was the best $5.00 that I ever spent – those five dollars changed my life.

As I started to read my used Bible, something very strange happened to me. Out of all the tens of thousands of pages that I had read over the years, I found that the pages of this book were very different. They seemed to speak to me as if they had been written just for me. I had a trained empirical mind. It did not make sense to me at first. How could a book written more than 2000 years ago be written just for me? I began to test this Bible, as any empirical thinker would do under the circumstances. I would think of some issue in my life or some problem that I was facing and I would open the book up at random and start reading. I started to notice a trend. Often, within the first few pages that I read, sometimes on the very page that I opened, I came across words that seemed to be speaking to me in a direct way about what I had been thinking before I opened the book. I tested it many times. Even up until the day that I write these words; the Bible has never disappointed me. Christina was very happy that I was reading the Bible. She said that I was making progress and that it would make me a better man. I took her word for it. She had been right so many times over the years that I knew she was close to God. I just did not know at the time the extent to which she was close to the Lord. One night in 2009, the Lord sent His angels to take Christina back home to be with Him. That night changed my life yet again.

When tragedy strikes in our lives, our reaction is swift and emotional. We have an immediate desire to call on God for help. We not only want Him close, but we need Him close. I was no different. The little girl with whom I had grown up and who had become my wife and best friend, my life partner, and my tangible evidence of the unconditional love of God, had earned her wings and flown the coop. There was a moment, a very short moment, as I realized what just happened that I had a sense of calm. I could feel the presence of God. I knew, as much as I could know anything in this world, that Christina had just been swept up by the Lord and that she was in heaven. It was confirmation of everything that I believed; everything that she had taught me to believe.

But it was a very short moment until the rest of reality hit me harder than I will ever be able to describe. In that next moment, I was humbled in a manner that I was not prepared to