archives

“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof: the world, and all they that dwell therein.” Psalm 23:1

Establishing Basic Principles

Christians must begin with Christ’s teachings when considering economic policy. So let’s start with first principles. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “God has sovereign dominion over all things: and He, according to His providence, directed certain things to the sustenance of man's body. For this reason man has a natural dominion over things, as regards the power to make use of them.” - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa, IIae, q. 66. We are not the owners, but the stewards of creation. We owe our being to God, yet this is not disempowering. Property can never actually be private because it is bounty of the earth in which all share. This definition of private property is far different than the one that currently reigns in the U.S. According to this definition, man has the power of use, but God is the ultimate owner. As with the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas chides the wealthy for acquiescing in the illusion of absolute ownership, which is the source of false freedom, “The rich man is reproved for deeming external things to belong to him principally, as though he had not received them from another, namely from God.” - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa, IIae, q. 66. Everything that we “own” is a loan from God meant to help bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

Opening the Synod of Bishops on the Bible this morning, Pope Benedict XVI urged the bishops gathered in Rome for the next three weeks to think big -- asking them to ponder how the Bible can fuel renewal "from the family to schools, culture, work, free time and other sectors of society and our lives.”

The clear hint was that the pope does not want this synod to be primarily an inward-directed affair, concerned with the role of the Bible in internal church affairs, but rather one with a much broader horizon.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

By the standards of a church with over 2,000 years of history, the Synod of Bishops was essentially born yesterday. It was founded in 1965 by Pope Paul VI at the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), as a means of giving bishops around the world a voice in the governance of the universal church.

Since the synod is a relatively recent arrival, it’s probably not surprising that it continues to break new ground. Even so, the edition which meets Oct. 5-26 in Rome, with the theme of “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” is distinctive for at least ten “firsts” it will occasion:

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

It sounds suspiciously like a joke in search of a punch-line: “The pope, a rabbi and a Jesuit walk into a bar.” Change the word “bar” to “synod hall,” however, and it's no joke, but rather the agenda for Monday afternoon’s session of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, in what promises to be among the early highlights of the three-week event.