Western Catholic Reporter: the CSDCC on Property

The Western Catholic Reporter of Canada continues it's Introduction to the The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church.

This time, WCR Editor Glen Argan addresses Catholic Social Teaching's consideration of property:

The Catholic Church's teaching has long seen the right to property as the basis of any society rooted in the common good. A person makes part of the earth - or the goods of creation - his own through work and intelligence. That effort legitimizes his special claim to that part of creation.

Property gives each person, or each family, a realm for the exercise of their own freedom. It accords them a form of dignity and a basis for a full role in society.

Moreover, there is no need for a strictly equal division of property for each person to have dignity. Perfect equality would deny the initiative, effort and intelligence that went into making those goods of creation usable.
The common good

But if the Church defends a right to property, it is quick to say that the ownership of property carries responsibility. Property is not strictly private. While property aids the individual good, it, more basically, must contribute to the common good.

That is because all goods have "a universal destination." This notion clearly emerged in Catholic teaching at the Second Vatican Council, but it was Pope John Paul II who gave it its strongest defence in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus (CA).

Pope John Paul wrote, "God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone" (n. 31).

This principle does two things. First, it explicitly says that God is the creator of the goods of the earth. People do not have sovereignty over these goods. They are stewards of creation.

Second, it says God's gift was not primarily to those who have managed to get their hands on a large amount of property.

His gift is to the whole human race, "without excluding or favouring anyone."

Those who have no property - and they number in the billions - have a right to some. Those who hold large amounts of property have a duty to make that property serve the common good and even to surrender some of it to those who are dispossessed.

Americans have long found ways in which to express American dualisms. Throughout history, struggles have arisen between Northerners and Southerners, Easterners and Westerners, urban and rural citizens, and elites and popular everymen. Manufacturers and farmers have fought over economic policies. Merchants and domestic craftsmen clashed over subsidies and tarriffs. Red and Blue staters tore each other up in the 2004 Presidential election, along with their Republican and Democratic parties. Even American football fans have literally brought down the house over preferences for either east or west coast offenses! Many others could make this list, too. The result of these struggles has often been one in which many Americans perceive a tilt toward one direction as a repudiation of the other.

Of course, reality is quite a bit more complex. The truth is far too many Americans are willing to see phenomena as black and white that actually occupy some position on a continuum. In more colloquial language, there are far more things that appear as shades of gray than as black or white. Catholic Social Teaching on property is one of them.

Like all Catholic Social Teaching, the doctrine regarding property has its roots in God's plan for creation and humanity's role in that plan. All human beings have been called to a full communion with our loving Father and creator. As such, we all enjoy the inherent dignity of being persons created in his image and likeness. Likewise, our created personhood endows us with the responsibility to fully participate in this life-giving relationship with our God. In practical terms, this means we're to love one another as ourselves and care for the creation, with which he has blessed us all.

Property becomes the most appropriate way in which we can care for creation. When we acquire property, we invest our time and attention in making sure that property is well tended. Thus, we participate in the good stewardship of creation that God implicitly calls us to do. However, we can't make the good use of our property for ourselves the be-all and end-all of our existence. We need to put our property to the best use in order to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This is what the Church means when she speaks of the Universal Destination of Goods. While our right to property is definitely a human right, it is not an absolute one, contrary to any testimony the Chicago School might offer. We enjoy our property to the extent that our use and enjoyment contributes to our good stewardship. And this good stewardship must include contribution to the Common Good.

This is the point where American dualism, particularly political dualism, complicates the understanding of this teaching. Foolables often examine the Church's social doctrine through the prisms of their own political paradigms. Any facet of the SD that aligns with their particular political paradigm they accept. Anything that challenges it they deny: either through minimization and distortion of what it says, refusal to accept it as is, or outright hostility. Foolables of the Right will scoff at any encroachment of absolute property rights. They will bow before the Golden Calf of Market Efficiency and demand that the Catholic Church get with the times and understand basic economics. Foolables of the Left will ignore the obvious fact that the Catholic Church supports private property period. Some will even attempt to endorse the kinds of socialism that Pope John Paul the Great explicitly condemns as incompatible with human dignity and Christianity in CA. Neither Foolables will allow SD to possibly put them in the enemy's camp! In their minds, that is what any acceptance of teaching that reflects the politics of the opposition would be. How could they face their tribe if they committed such betrayals. How could they bear to be in the wrong? O the humanity!

They completely miss the point, of course. Catholic Social Teaching proposes no economic models and sanctions no political arrangements. No, like in all things, the Church proposes the truth and seeks to form people's consciences according to the truth. We know that we must love our neighbor as ourself. We understand that we're the ones that must willingly part with property we don't need or use in order to ensure that our poorer neighbors have the opportunity to enjoy it. We know that we ought to live simply so that others may simply live. We need no Leviathan or Nanny Caesar to forcibly seperate us from our property. When we form our conscience in Christ's teaching, we'll have the promptings of the Holy Spirit to guide and persuade us to make the right decisions.

We must awaken to our responsibilities as members of God's family. That means we must treat our less fortunate brothers as our brothers, not as anonymous unfortunates that have no connection to our lives. They are not simply sad statistics on the internet or images on FNC. They are family! Christ waits for our compassion in the guise of our brothers. Will we love our savior? Then let us become responsible stewards of the property that he has entrusted to us.