Faith & Economics
NUMBER 58, Fall 2011
Divisible Goods and Common Good: Reflections on Caritas in Veritate
Francis Russel Hittinger
University of Tulsa
Abstract: Pope Benedict XVI issued the encyclical Caritas in veritate
(Benedict XVI, 2009) on the heels of the global economic crisis. It pleased
some readers, dismayed others, but seemed to perplex many more. I neither defend nor quarrel with the encyclical. Instead, I hope to remove some impediments that social scientists, and especially academic economists, might have when they read social encyclicals, including Benedict’s. I make three main points. First, the term “social” in this tradition does not take its meaning chiefly from the social goods and utilities usually studied by social scientists. Social refers, in the first place, to modalities of social union. Second, the Catholic tradition does not take a one-sided view of either state redistribution or the logic of private exchange. Third, while the tradition speaks of different kinds of justice, it is also quite insistent that natural and supernatural loves are the companion of justice.
JEL: A12, A13, Z13
Key Words: Catholic Social Doctrine, Caritas in Veritate, common good, social justice, social charity