Does the Church Condemn Capitalism?

[Michie]

The headline of a report on a recent survey summed up its findings: “Capitalism Against Christianity, Americans Believe.”

Is that good news or bad news? What should Catholics think? Does Catholic social teaching imply opposition to capitalism?

The answers you get to those questions would no doubt differ dramatically depending on whom you ask. Although it’s true that faithful Catholics have divergent opinions about matters involving the interpretation of Catholic social teaching and the assessment of economic facts, much of the heat such differences generate is due less to fundamental differences of principle and more to failure to take into account the wisdom of Voltaire. “If you wish to converse with me,” he said, “define your terms.”

Capitalism, like a handful of other words common in contemporary social and political discourse — rights, liberalism, and religion come to mind — has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. This fact alone should be enough to warn anyone seriously concerned with furthering dialogue with a view to discovering the truth (as opposed to preaching to the choir or rallying the troops or — pick your metaphor — otherwise engaging in polemics) that the term should be handled with care.

And yet, by and large, it isn’t. Acrimonious debates about whether the Church “approves” or “condemns” capitalism have raged for decades, in venues ranging from populist blogs to academic conferences. YYears of participation in and observation of such debates has convinced me that much of the discussion is entirely fruitless. The reason is the chameleonic character of the term capitalism.

Continued- http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/does-the-church-condemn-capitalism

 

[JacktheCatholic]

Yes. Capitalism leads to greed and neglect of human life.

 

[SolomonVII]

No.
Capitalism leads to freedom and individual initiative.

 

[Dark_Lite]

History tells us that completely unrestricted capitalism lead to neglect of human life as JacktheCatholic said. History also tells us that communism fails utterly each and every time it is implemented. A balance is needed.

 

[MKJ]

The Catholic Church is pretty hard on capitalism in the encyclicals that talk about economics. Pope Benidict and JPII have also spoken extensivly on capitalism and its limits, and the importence, and the necessity, of a just distribution of goods, and the problems in the underlying assumptions of capitalism.

There are lots of interesting books on the topic. A good one that was fundamental in Catholic thinking on this issue is The Serville State. In it, he argues, among other things, that capitalism is essentially a Protestant system that replaced a developing, really Catholic economic form.

Some other sources:
Ecclesia in America
Centisimus Annus
Market Economy and Ethics

There is really a ton of information available on this subject even online, one could really spend years on it.