The Social Doctrine of the Church and the Personalistic Approach to Economics

Abstract

According to the statement that the existence of an abstract economy is not possible — i.e. an economy far from man and his conscience, as already stated in the introduction — it is necessary to work out a general outline that is able to guide man in his life and, in particular, the economic dealer in his activity. A Catholic finds this outline in the Social Doctrine of the Church, that is in “the nations of social philosophy (gathered from the essentially social nature of man) and of theology (gathered from the Christian redeeming order) as for nature and the order of human society, and as for the consequent rules and tasks that the actual historic conditions make it possible to realize”². The social doctrine of the Church is not then “a third way between capitalism and Marxist collectivism” and not even an ideology. It is the result of the careful observation of the complex human reality within a social and international context, by the light of faith and ecclesial tradition. Its major purpose is to interpret this reality...to orient Christian behaviour”³.

The second part has been written by Giuseppe Gaburro and Giancarlo Cressotti. Giancarlo Cressotti graduated in Economics at the University of Verona with a thesis on this subject under the directions of Prof. Giuseppe Gaburro. He has been awarded with the second Degree Prize “Prof. Aleardo Valerio” for economics and ethics (ex aequo). He published Etica ed economia, in Orientamenti Sociali (1992), 4.