Because there is no candidate running for president this year who is in favor of unjust wars, torture, racism (if don’t count affirmative action as racism) or poverty, I don’t see how this essay helps. Both Obama and McCain support the death penalty. But Catholic social thought does not absolutely condemn it as inherently unjust, as it does abortion. Catholic social thought also does not condemn free markets per se. It does claim that commerce and labor cannot be reduced to merely market transactions and agreements, but that is not the same as saying that capitalism is evil. Free markets within the framework of a morally rich culture grounded in devotion to God and family is absolutely consistent with Catholic Social Thought. As JP II writes in Centesimus Annus: “It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are “solvent”, insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are “marketable”, insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied, and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish. It is also necessary to help these needy people to acquire expertise, to enter the circle of exchange, and to develop their skills in order to make the best use of their capacities and resources. Even prior to the logic of a fair exchange of goods and the forms of justice appropriate to it, there exists something which is due to man because he is man, by reason of his lofty dignity. Inseparable from that required “something” is the possibility to survive and, at the same time, to make an active contribution to the common good of humanity.”
The best and most reliable indicator of reducing poverty is a stable family consisting of one mother, one father who are married to each other and who are at least high school educated. One political party seems to say that such normative judgments are inconsistent with personal autonomy. They have been in the forefront of eradicting every law that was put in place to create hedge around the family. Oh, they may claim that they want to eradicate poverty, racism, etc. But they put in place policies that exacerbate such conditions.
