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Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions
By Michael Novak
San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1984. 253 pp. $17.95.

Since his philosophical conversion some years ago, Michael Novak has become Catholicism's chief neo-liberal spokesperson. One detects a strong sense of mission in many of his writings including this most recent volume. Catholic social thought on an international level, starting with the Vatican Council, has begun moving away from its earlier base in liberal capitalism toward an increasing love affair in some quarters with socialist outlooks. This trend gained strength with Paul VI, the 1971 Synod of Bishops, and has reached its peak in Latin American liberation theologies. Recently it has begun to infiltrate the North American scene as well, even at the Episcopal level. Novak is out to reverse this trend, to return Catholicism's approach to freedom and human rights to an earlier period of sanity. And he strongly believes that the recent encyclicals of John Paul II support him in this effort. Only a return to authentically liberal economic policies, especially as these flow from the Anglo-American perspective, can guarantee greater economic justice in this land while preserving our spirit of personal liberty.

The immediate context of this book is the American Catholic Bishops' Economics Pastoral. In some ways its title is misleading. For it does not deal with the full range of issues associated with freedom, justice, and liberal institutions, but confines itself in the main to those that directly impinge on economic questions.

Novak feels that Catholic social thought is far too much in a quandary about the issue of political economy. If its uncertainties are not dispelled, something Novak hopes to accomplish through this volume, the church may fall prey to an uncritical acceptance of distributionist models of economic justice based on discredited dependency interpretations of underdevelopment that will make the last state of the victims far worse than the first.

Even if one has serious reservations about certain analytical points and proposals made by Novak, he has written a volume with which it is worth arguing. Two theses are especially central to his viewpoint: (1) the statements of the Catholic Church regarding economic development and

236 - Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions

the protection of human rights show a definite proclivity, at least implicitly, for an economic model rooted in liberal institutions; and (2) democratic socialists have conceded all the previous points of contention to liberal democracy. Each of these theses has a partial validity, but neither is as incontrovertible as Novak assumes.

There is little doubt that official Catholic teaching from Roman sources strongly criticizes the socialist option in economic affairs. The only slight openings to socialism come with John XXIII and Paul VI, especially Populorum progressio. But Paul clearly repudiated any socialist interpretations of this encyclical in a subsequent document Octogesima adveniens. Overall, it is fair to say that the Catholic Church prefers liberal capitalist economic models, but not without a continuing critique of many of their persistent abuses. With John Paul II, however, the situation is not altogether clear. His speeches in Canada and Latin America, as well as his encyclical on human labor (which Novak seriously misinterprets), may not reject all socialist options. To the extent that this encyclical is rooted in the economic models proposed by the Solidarity movement in Poland (and the influence is considerable), it has to be said that while John Paul favors worker participation in management and worker co-ownership, he does not automatically reject ownership of the means of production by the state. Such ownership was never clearly rejected by Solidarity.

As regards Novak's contention that democratic socialism has conceded all, the argument is not demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. It is true that democratic socialism lacks clarity on many key issues, such as ownership of the means of production and nationalization of financial institutions. But at the minimum, it insists on much greater, direct government intervention than Novak seems willing to grant. Toward the end of the volume, he does admit some catalyst role for government, but his perspective is quite underdeveloped. Yet just as official Catholic social thought is strong in its repudiation of socialism, so is it insistent on the direct role of government in insuring justice in economic affairs. This positive role of government is also a central question posed by democratic socialism. It is a question to which Novak has not provided an adequate answer; nor has he done full justice to the stand of official Catholicism or democratic socialism.

Some other strengths and weaknesses of the volume can be identified. Novak is to be commended for raising the question of liberty in connection with economic justice. It must be raised not just in terms of human dignity but also in terms of human creativity. Novak is also good in presenting the thought of Wilhelm von Ketteler and Heinrich Pesch, two of the principal architects of Catholic social thought at the level of the Vatican. He shows how they fundamentally differ from the Anglo-American tradition (especially as presented by John Stuart Mill), which has been almost totally ignored by Catholicism, a situation Novak rightly criticizes. His failure to deal in any significant way with the theological and biblical foundations for economic justice, especially the

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notion of social structural sin, remains a real drawback in the volume. Also, his criticisms of Paul VI and of Cardinal Arms of Brazil, one of Latin America's most articulate spokespersons for the poor, are overdrawn.

On balance, this volume makes a significant contribution to the discussion of Catholic social thought and contemporary economic policies. Its central contention needs modification, even in terms of historical accuracy. But the book provides a genuine service by bringing the positive features of the long neglected Anglo-American tradition to the forefront of the discussion in a Catholic context.

John T. Pawlikowski, O.S.M.
Catholic Theological Union
Chicago, Illinois