Posted on 11/12/2026 7:00:20 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
When some people hear the Catholic Church teaches “no one can be at the same time be a good Catholic and a true socialist” (Quadragesimo Anno 120), they ask in reply, “But can a good Catholic be a true capitalist?”
The question is, rather, “How should the state view and intervene in the affairs of free-market economies?” To that question, Pope Pius XI offered two answers.
First, the state should not treat capitalism as something intrinsically evil, since it “is not to be condemned in itself” (Quadragesimo Anno 101).
Second, the state should make sure free markets adhere to “norms of right order” by correcting violations of these norms. These include conditions that “scorn the human dignity of the workers, the social character of economic activity and social justice itself, and the common good” (101). The state could, for example, require factory owners to implement commonsense safety measures to protect workers from occupational hazards.
John Paul II stressed that “the Church’s social doctrine is not a ‘third way’ between liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 41). Instead, the Church’s moral teachings can be used to order actions that take place in free markets toward promoting the common good of society...
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.com ...
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For Catholics, it depends on how the Pope rules. But a Bible believing Christian can be a capitalist.
What do you think about this one? You seem to have some bizarre anti-America religious politics.
Capitalism is buying and selling with the aim of making a profit. I don’t know of anything in the Bible or anything written by Catholic theologians which opposes that.
Of course we can. “Are we not Americans?!!!”
I am, so YES!!!!!!
Genesis 1:28 is a private property statement: "ur'du," commonly mistranslated as "have dominion" refers to the ancinent practice of shepherds walking a line in the grass to stake a claim on a pasture. One is therefore accountable for what happens inside. To deal with boundary conditions and beyond, functionally, one must "love thy neighbor."
Catholics don't get that ouf of Genesis 1. It's too bad. As to the managment of wealth and the poor the key was the Sabbath for the Land as articulated in Exodus 23:10-11 (and again in Matthew 25), with "tishm'tena un'tashta" again translated more literally as 'you shall release it and abandon it and not as "let it rest and lie fallow." That morph developed for unfortunate historical reasons.
The Catholic Church survives on capitalism.
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