In June
of 2014, Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, a “prince” of the Roman Catholic Church, of
the free-market system as “a new idol” that increases inequalities of wealth
and excludes the poor. Pope Francis had already claimed that personal
charity is not sufficient as a remedy—that solidarity with the poor
necessitates, in the Cardinal’s words, “dealing with the structural causes of
poverty and injustice.” As theorized by Thomas Piketty, that structure
includes a tendency under typical circumstances for the rate of return on
capital to exceed the growth rate in incomes (and GNP). Faith in the market’s
invisible hand and people’s charitable giving do not suffice to counter this
tilt. Indeed, Catholic social ethics would have it that faith in perfect
competition as an ideal is tantamount to idolatry that operates at the expense
particularly of the down-trodden and poor.
The full essay is at "Catholic Social Ethics: The Free Market as an Idol."
