Since his pontificate was short and much of his effort went toward beginning the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John XXIII did not write very many encyclicals. We’ll begin with one of the more important ones, titled Mater et Magistra and written in 1961. It is Latin for “Mother and Teacher,” and it focuses on the role of the Church as mother and teacher of all nations. Like other popes, John XXIII released this document on the anniversary of a very important previous document, Rerum Novarum, written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. We covered this document in the past and noted it’s focus on social changes and the need for pursuing justice in those changes.
The pope starts this letter by reminding us that “Christianity is the meeting-point of earth and heaven” and that “it lays claim to the whole man, body and soul, intellect and will.” This means the Church takes an interest above all in man’s soul and salvation, but also in his earthly well-being. He then praises Pope Leo XIII, whose social teaching was widely acclaimed and an excellent example of the Church’s solicitude for social justice. He then spends some time summarizing the conditions of that time and the response offered by Leo, which we won’t repeat in full now. We will highlight key points and focus in on additions and new approaches taken by John XXIII.
It is worth reiterating that Leo XIII and every pope since (including this one) has clearly taught that a system based entirely on a the profit-motive (greed) is not inherently just. This is part of the reason that laissez-faire capitalism is strongly condemned by the Church. It is in fact part of the job of the government to guard against abuses in economics. This was especially seen in early industrial era when slavish working conditions and child labor were rampant problems. The popes have also forcefully taught, even though private property is a human right, it is one that comes with limitations and obligations. We are only allowed to own property if we use it for the good of others. Right always come with obligations. Always.
Of particular concern to John XXIII is the Church’s teaching on the Common Good, something taught by Leo and the popes between Leo and himself. He makes a point to highlight “that man’s aim must be to achieve in social justice a national and international juridical order, with its network of public and private institutions, in which all economic activity can be conducted not merely for private gain but also in the interests of the common good.” He will touch on this theme and its relation to balance quite a bit.
After summarizing points from his predecessors, Pope St. John XXIII takes a moment to discuss the new world developments in science, society, and politics. Since the last letter on social justice, nuclear power has entered into the equation. Synthetic materials and automated production are more common, and efforts are being made to reach into space. While education and distribution of commodities had generally improved between the 40s and the 60s, it’s also true that developments had made discrepancies clearer: the gap between agriculture and industry as well as the vast differences of wealth between nations and even within the same nations. Politically, “public authorities are injecting themselves more each day into social and economic matters.”
In wanting to address these things, John XXIII writes that “it should be stated at the outset that in the economic order first place must be given to the personal initiative of private citizens working either as individuals or in association with each other in various ways for the furtherance of common interests.” In other words, the Church defends individual freedom in economic development. The pope then immediately adds that “the civil power must also have a hand in the economy.” To borrow a more contemporary term, the libertarian philosophy of letting the economy do whatever it wants is not acceptable. This warning is in turn balanced by the next paragraph, which reminds us of the principle of Subsidiarity, which means that in every organization, it is wrong for “a larger and higher association to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower societies.” In other words, over-centralized bureaucracy is also not compatible with the Church’s social teaching. We’re already seeing the pattern that keeps coming up in the Church’s social teaching: balance. Balance between individuals and community and between communities. We’ll continue to see this and similar themes as we work through the rest of this letter.