St Mary’s University – Dean of Faculty – Education, Humanities and Social Sciences. Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics.
As well as Dean of the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at St Mary’s University, Philip helps to develop curricula and teaches in fields such as political economy, business ethics and Catholic social teaching. He also works for the Institute of Economic Affairs as Senior Academic Fellow. Click here to view Philip’s full profile
On the website www.catholicsocialthought.org.uk, there is a set of videos that introduce Catholic social thought and teaching. These will be featured on the blog over the coming weeks. These are also available in Portuguese .
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Richard was the founding director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics. He was a visiting professor in the Business School at St. Mary’s University. He made a number of contributions to the life of St. Mary’s, including organising high profile events involving academics, business leaders and policy thinkers. He also guest lectured on the MA in Catholic Social Teaching.
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Providing Christian commentary on the recent budget is not especially easy. There was a measure to remove the two-child cap on Universal Credit payments that was welcomed by many Christians. But the rest of the budget was really a collection of bits and pieces as well as deferred tax rises on which it is difficult to provide a Christian analysis.
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Why should Catholics work to nurture the natural environment? The answer to this It is part of our Christian calling. The teaching of the Church has been clear from the earliest times. In the book of Genesis, it is stated at the end of the creation story “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” If God proclaims His gift of creation to be good, then we have a responsibility to care for it and use it appropriately.
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The topic of fraternity was covered in a post shortly after the death of Pope Francis. It is worth revisiting, especially following Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi te, though this was drafted before that document was issued. The starting point for this post is the question “how might Catholic social teaching affect our everyday lives?”. In particular, I want to consider how it might affect all our everyday lives, not just those involved, for example, in political lobbying.
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Confucius was reported to have said: “when words lose their meaning, people will lose their liberty”. Today, we could re-phrase that and say: “When words lose their meaning, the most vulnerable will lose their lives”.
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In this final part of the encyclical, the treatment and protection of the working class is dealt with directly and at length.
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To know whether compassion is under threat, we need, firstly, to define it. In the Christian tradition, compassion means to “suffer together with”. It involves entering into the suffering of another. There are classic Christian examples of compassion. Mary shared her son’s agony at the foot of the cross. The Good Samaritan provided the financial means and put himself at considerable physical risk to help the person who had been robbed. St Maximillian Kolbe substituted himself for a condemned father in Auschwitz and, as a result, was condemned to starvation himself, though he actually suffered death from the injection of carbolic acid into his veins.
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We ended Part One of this guide to Rerum novarum with the encyclical’s reminder to the rich that they would have to answer to God if they were not generous with their riches. The focus of that first part was the staunch defence of the right to property. This part will look at the relationship between the state, the family and the Church and the responsibilities we have to the poor.
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Pope Francis regularly talked about the conflicts that scar the world. And, of course, Pope Leo has continued to address the tragedy of war in his Angelus addresses and on other occasions. Both popes regularly addressed the environmental crises too – not least, of course, in Pope Francis’s encyclical letter, Laudato si, and in his apostolic exhortation, Laudate deum. It is rare in Catholic social teaching, however, for the two issues to be linked.
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