Nor is our vaunted understanding of capitalism something the STC passes on without comment: “It is unfortunate that on these new conditions of society a system has been constructed which considers profit as the key motive for economic progress, competition as the supreme law of economics, and private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right that has no limits and carries no corresponding social obligation. This unchecked liberalism [the European term for laissez-faire capitalism] leads to dictatorship rightly denounced by Pius XI as producing ‘the international imperialism of money.’ One cannot condemn such abuses too strongly by solemnly recalling once again that the economy is at the service of [human beings].…Capitalism has been the source of excessive suffering, injustices and fratricidal conflicts whose effects still persist” (Populorum Progressio, 26; Acta Apostolicae Sedis [A.A.S.], No. 4, pp. 257–299). While we are well aware of the condemnation of Communism that fills Church documents, this stern assessment of capitalism is one we often overlook, and it may even come as a shock to many people.

Second, according to the STC, government has a legitimate role to play in the economy. For years now we have been bombarded with the view of some that big government is bad, and by “big government” they mean any government that delivers goods and services to the people, at least to the poor. Health care, education, unemployment compensation, and social security were services some thought the private sector should provide, even though ample proof indicated the private sector was not doing so. Health care, for example, left in the hands of private insurers has done a poor and costly job for those who have private insurance and has completely ignored forty-five million Americans.

The mantra that would push government out of the economy is one the STC has never condoned. As Catholics we’ve often been more aware of the Vatican’s opposition to Communism/Marxism over the years than the critical stance it has often registered toward our capitalist system.

The Pope who has become a symbol of all this in the Church and beyond, the good and loving John XXIII, had this to say about the role of government in society: “The State [read Government], whose purpose is the realization of the common good in the temporal order, can by no means disregard the economic activity of its citizens. Indeed, it should be present to promote in a suitable manner the production of a sufficient supply of material goods….Moreover, it should safeguard the rights of all citizens, but especially the weaker, such as workers, women and children” (Mater et Magistra, 20; A.A.S., No. 8, pp. 401–464).

Pope John Paul II added these words: “The State has the duty of watching over the common good and of ensuring that every sector of social life, not excluding the economic one, contributes to achieving that good, while respecting the rightful autonomy of each sector” (The Hundredth Year [Centesimus Annus], 11).

In the STC, government has the responsibility of ensuring the common good. The capitalist system inherently favors the wealthy. Thus many areas of involvement are important. One is surely the regulation of economic activity, which is clear from the present crisis, brought on in large part by weakening, or in some cases abandoning, regulation of the marketplace. Many of the regulatory systems put in place during the Great Depression have been ignored by recent administrations. It is time to fix them; an obvious example in this critical time would be regulating the banking and the shadow-banking system. In the complicated system of packaging debts, it has become clear that those funds were a chimera. In many ways the whole system became a giant Madoff-Ponzi scheme: money was being lent that had no connection to real goods or earnings.

Another responsibility of government is to provide those goods and services that some cannot provide for themselves. The US health-care system has become the most scandalous example of services that some—read forty-five million—cannot afford. This needs to be corrected and not just kicked around like a fumbled football for another forty years. Education also devolves upon government—local, state, and federal—to ensure it is of the highest quality for all. Social Security, which ensures some kind of decent life for the elderly and those with disabilities, needs serious strengthening. These are obviously government responsibilities.

Third, John Paul II spoke of the priority of labor over capital. In the present crisis, as in most downturns, workers are the ones who are suffering first and most. They are the ones losing their jobs and their homes while many CEOs have fled the scene with gold in their parachutes. Some saw labor an unnecessary expenditure in the recent debate over bailing out the auto industry, whereas the Church gives the working class the distinction of being the most treasured element of the economic system. All economies must be, according to John Paul II, at the service of the worker. “The Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated.…Human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question” (On Human Work [Laborem Exercens], 1, 3).