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Social justice is thus another way of describing our obligation to contribute to the common good, with the emphasis being upon people receiving what they are owed. Obviously the state has a role in this... Equally significant, however, is the emphasis upon society pursuing this end. It follows that social justice is not and cannot be the government's exclusive concern.

The intricate design of creation speaks of the intimate designs of the Creator: His plans, His purposes, and His invitation to men and women to enter into His own Mystery, His own Love and Life.

"Secularism" today, however, often denotes a distinct set of beliefs which hold that any religious-motivated action is unacceptable in the public square. Such secularism has nothing to do with maintaining a healthy distinction between spiritual and temporal authority. Rather it is about the state effectively prohibiting or unduly restricting religiously motivated acts outside the freedom of worship.

"Secularism" today, however, often denotes a distinct set of beliefs which hod that any religious-motivated action is unacceptable in the public square. Such secularism has nothing to do with maintaining a healthy distinction between spiritual and temporal authority. Rather it is about the state effectively prohibiting or unduly restricting religiously motivated acts outside the freedom of worship.

...what is at stake is knowledge of the truth and our ability to arrange our lives on the basis of what we discern to be the truth, consistent with the freedom of others to do the same. Truth is thus the foundation of religious liberty, but truth is also the goal of religious liberty.

The point of religious tolerance was, to [Charles] Carroll's mind, not the promotion of religious indifferentism (the self-evidently false position that all religions are basically the same and therefore equally meaningful or meaningless). Rather it was to create conditions in which people could argue about their respective religions' claims of truth without such differences leading to tragedies...

Well, we agree on the insidiousness of fiat money.

...it remains that a culture of inexorably-increasing levels of public and private debt and a failure to confront its moral and economic causes can slowly corrode the sense of responsibility on the part of governments and individuals for their freely-undertaken financial obligations and severely tempt them- and the rest of us- to live in a fantasy world of moral and fiscal unreality.

Today too many Catholics assume that taking part in the Liturgy almost requires us to be involved in a liturgical ministry of one kind or another. Some presume that if we're not involved in formal ministry, we're more of a spectator than a participant... We need to remember that the Liturgy is the Church at prayer: a perfect prayer offered through Christ to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the Belgium scholar Raymond de Roover penned numerous articles demonstrating how during the Middle Ages financial transactions and banking more generally started to take on the degree of sophistication that is commonplace today.

Unhappily, the connection between business, economic freedom, and human flourishing has never been especially obvious for some Catholic Americans. Despite the long and honorable history of American Catholics in business, many American Catholics... remain somewhat suspicious of private enterprise and the market economy more generally.

...the Catholic position in favor of limited government and the free economy does differ in important ways from the pre-Christian and post-Enlightenment schools of thought. These disparities owe much to Catholicism's specific understanding of the nature of human freedom. For Catholics, human freedom is grounded in what man is-an individual, sinful, and social being graced with reason and free will...

Americans "are not yet corrupt enough to undervalue Liberty, they are truly sensible of its blessings, and not only talk of them as they do somewhere else, but really wish their continuance." Charles Carroll, only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

...readers should recognize this book does not claim to be articulating the only possible Catholic stance regarding these matters. Plainly, neither socialism nor anarcho-capitalism is compatible with Catholic teaching.

Throughout the 20th century, many Catholic Americans featured prominently among supporters of [New Deal type] programs. Politically speaking, this owed much to the alliance between urban Northern Catholics and white overwhelmingly Protestant Southerners that was a staple of Democratic Party politics from the 1920s until the late 1960s.

To say that the past thirteen years have been especially challenging for the Catholic Church in America is surely an understatement. The visible rise in antagonism toward any number of the Church's teachings, well-publicized clashes with the federal government over religious liberty questions, and the clergy sex abuse scandals...have lead many...to see the wisdom contained in...think twice before wanting to live in

Well, the foreward was written by a member of the American Enterprise Institute.

I added something to myself and Bennie said, "What did you say?" "Sorry, Bernardo. Just an old saying in my own language. I suppose you could translate it, more or less, as: 'Home is where the heart is.'" "But what language was it?" "Tagalog. My native language."

All systems seek to achieve [stable and benevolent government] by limiting franchise to those who are believed to have the wisdom to use it justly... the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is a force. But this universe consists of paired dualities. What is the converse of authority? Responsibility.