By Rafael Termes

Following the line of all his predecessors, Pope John Paul II declared more than once that "the Church does not propose economic and political systems or programs, nor does she show preference for o­ne or the other, provided that human dignity is properly respected and promoted, and provided she herself is allowed the room she needs to exercise her ministry in the world".

"The Church's social doctrine," the Pope concludes, "is not a 'third way' between liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism, nor even a possible alternative to other solutions less radically opposed to o­ne another: rather, it constitutes a category of its own. Nor is it an ideology, but rather the accurate formulation of the results of a careful reflection o­n the complex realities of human existence, in society and in the international order, in the light of faith and of the Church's tradition.

"Its main aim is to interpret these realities, determining their conformity with or divergence from the lines of the Gospel teaching o­n man and his vocation, a vocation which is at o­nce earthly and transcendent; its aim is thus to guide Christian behavior. It therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral theology." And where is this Social Doctrine of the Church to be found? In all its centuries-long Magisterium.

In the encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, the Pope addresses the problem of the foreign debt of developing countries, which he regards as o­ne of the specific indicators of underdevelopment. The Pope calls upon the experts to seek solutions to that problem in light of ethical principles.

An equally constant tradition of the Magisterium is that the right to private property, recognized as having a natural character, "is not an absolute right" -in the words of Centesimus Annus- as its limits are inscribed in its very nature as a human right. Yet it was precisely John Paul II who, in Sollicitudo rei socialis, explicated the connection that exists between, o­n the o­ne hand, the abstract legacy that God, at the origin, granted in favor of all men, by giving them dominion over all the things of the earth, and o­n the other, the necessary regime of private property.

Another important aspect of John Paul II's thought o­n economic matters has to do with work. Work is a subject to which he devotes long sections of Laborem Exercens, where, near the beginning, he states, "The Church is convinced that work is a fundamental dimension of man's existence o­n earth".

But what is new about John Paul II's thought o­n the subject of work becomes apparent when he makes us realize the difference there is between work in an objective sense and work in a subjective sense. Thus, in section 5 of Laborem Exercens, he tells us, "This universality and, at the same time, this multiplicity of the process of 'subduing the earth' throw light upon human work, because man's dominion over the earth is achieved in and by means of work".

The fact is that, although work in a subjective sense escapes that law and although the o­ne who works, whatever the worth of the things he produces, must be valued as befits the dignity of the human person, there is nothing to stop the product of work from being valued, that is, paid for, according to the criteria that determine the just price of things.

John Paul II concludes, "The key problem of social ethics in this case is that of just remuneration for work done". And he stresses, "wages, that is to say remuneration for work, are still a practical means whereby the vast majority of people can have access to those goods which are intended for common use: both the goods of nature and manufactured goods. [...] Hence, in every case, a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system".

The conclusion we can draw from these words of John Paul II is that those of us who think that, economically speaking, the free market system is the best of all possible systems must do all we can to rid it of the pernicious effects that, according to John Paul II, would make it unacceptable.



This article, extracted from the speech of the same title given by Rafael Termes o­n the occasion of the 25th anniversary of John Paul II's papacy, was published in "La Gaceta de los Negocios", 14/04/05 in Spanish.

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