Economics Archives - Catholic Social Thought

Building from the Bottom Up – Catholic social teaching, society and the state

Render unto Caesar was published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales in 2025. It was followed by an event, and the next three blog posts will be articles based on the speakers’ remarks at that event. The articles are being published now because the Feast of the Annunciation was the ancient beginning of the tax year. Indeed, it was the beginning of the legal year until 1752. The change in the calendar led the tax year to move to its current starting point of 6th April. Our Christian roots, perhaps, go deeper than we realise.

Business ethics and the common good

On the website www.catholicsocialthought.org.uk, there is a set of videos that introduce Catholic social thought and teaching. We continue featuring those videos on the blog with the video on “Business ethics and the common good”. This explores the vital role that business plays in promoting the common good and the importance of the vocation of the business leader being followed ethically. Also available in Portuguese.

Back to budget basics

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.

A Guide to Rerum Novarum Part Three – The protection of workers, unions and the duties of employers

In this final part of the encyclical, the treatment and protection of the working class is dealt with directly and at length.

A Guide to Rerum Novarum Part Two: The Church, the family, the state and the use of riches

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.

The Season of Creation 2025 – War and the Destruction of Creation

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.

A guide to Rerum Novarum part one: the political context and the right to property

Historical context

Upon his election, Pope Leo XIV said that he was inspired to take the name “Leo” by Pope Leo XIII’s work on Catholic social teaching. The newly-elected pope especially mentioned Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum novarum. Pope Leo XIV related this to the current need to think about things afresh given the development of artificial intelligence (AI). This series of three blogs explores Rerum novarum. It is a radical and holistic call to orientate our whole lives towards God – including in the political, economic and social sectors. To try to distil it for its proposals, as many do, in the political, economic and social domains alone and to take it outside its religious context leaves it stripped of its essence.