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Handout #262 |
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Pius XI: The Encyclical Quadragesimo anno, on the restoration of the social order in full conformity with the precepts of the gospel (15 May 1931) |
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When celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Rerum
novarum in the context of the economic crisis, Pius XI widened the
perspectives of Leo XIII.
There has been not merely an accumulation of wealth but a huge concentration of power and economic dictatorship in the hands of a few who are for the most part not the owners but merely the trustees and administrators of invested property, handing such funds at their arbitrary pleasure... This irresponsible power is the natural fruit of unlimited free competition which leaves surviving only the most powerful, which often means the most violent and unscrupulous fighters ... The new economic regime is coming into being at a time when rationalism has spread and become established. It is the result of an economics divorced from the moral law, and consequently its course has been left to human passions ... The experts in the social sciences are calling for a rationalization which will re-establish order in economic life. But this order must necessarily remain incomplete unless it realizes the admirable unity of the divine plan. |
