The Depression helped energize the most liberal elements of twentieth-century Catholicism—namely, those devoted to assisting the poor and disadvantaged against an uncaring and, at best, amoral capitalist system. Here was one place where the Catholic critique of liberal individualism temporarily meshed with popular views. The collective, government-centered response of the New Deal was more in keeping with Catholic teachings than the “rugged individualism” of unfettered capitalism. In 1931, Pope Pius XI released his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, in which he declared that “the right ordering of
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