Ethics and Economics: Canada's Catholic Bishops on the Economic Crisis

J.G. Reade was Librarian of the Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme, Dalhousie University, Halifax.

On New Year’s Day 1983, the Social Affairs Commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops published a statement entitled “Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis.” The statement provoked a good deal of response, from Catholics and non-Catholics, from economists and non-economists, from clergy and laity.

Ethics and Economics attempts to do two things in connection with this statement, by concentrating on two questions frequently posed when the statement was first discussed. The book first of all examines the record of the Catholic Church as regards social action and provides evidence of the concern of the Church in the past for social justice, thereby answering those critics who felt that the 1983 statement was an intrusion by a religious group into matters that were not its territory. This first section, “The Shift in Catholic Social Teaching,” uses documentation not only from previous Canadian Catholic statements showing a concern for the unemployed, the exploited, and the disadvantaged in society, but from various Papal encyclicals also, thereby demonstrating the concern and involvement of the Catholic Church in general. Forming the basis of this section, of course, is the linking of the message of social concern to the teachings of Christ as found in the Gospels.

The second half of this work, which attempts to answer those critics who expressed doubt about the economic validity of the arguments used by the bishops, is entitled “Do Canada’s Bishops Make Economic Sense?” The discussion to support the statement here is advanced by looking in turn at various concepts dealt with in the statement — inflation, unemployment, the profit motive, the possibility of full employment, etc — and supplying details of recent Canadian economic and political developments to illustrate the rise of these particular phenomena.

The 1983 statement “Ethical Reflections...” is reprinted in full at the beginning of this book, and four appendices reprint earlier messages of the Canadian Catholic Conference which deal with the questions of unemployment, social justice, and the place of the Christian in a capitalist society.

Far from making pronouncements on matters that did not concern them, those who contributed to the 1983 statement were continuing a well-defined tradition of concern for the well-being of all members of society. This fact is clearly demonstrated in Ethics and Economics. The additional documentation and commentary provided by the authors are at once a clarification and an extension of the bishops’ original statement.