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Ever Hear of "The Universal Destination of Goods?"

Earlier this week, a priest actually defended holiday-time shoplifting, saying that he believed in "the universal destination of goods."

I thought this sounded distinctly socialist, so I looked it up.

According to the Journal of Markets & Morality, it has to do with two pillars of property ethics in Christian society.

"The first statement of the property ethics of Christian social theory, the emphasis on the right to personal property, held up by LeoXIII in the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (RN4)2 against socialism, which, along with Karl Marx, saw in private property the source of all human alienation and all social misery and hoped that least until 1989—for a paradise on earth by its elimination, can, if taken in isolation, lead to the misunderstanding that Christian social theory wants to legitimize the existing property system in the industrialized Western nations. The second statement, also developed by LeoXIII in Rerum Novarum (RN 7) and then in greater detail by PiusXI in 1931 in Quadragesimo Anno (QA45ff.), can lead to the opposite error, that Christian social theory weakens the importance of private property and holds alternative forms of property, even public property, as no less legitimate. PiusXI warned as early as Quadragesimo Anno against the “two dangerous unilateral positions, resulting from the denial or weakening of the social function of property, on the one hand, and the function of the individual, on the other, and leading either to individualism or collectivism (QA46). However, even when these unilateral views are avoided and both statements are given consideration, it is not easy to determine their proper relationship. This is already reflected in the history of Christianity."

Now, as this Atheist understand it, according to God's law, we should have the freedom to possess property, but only in moderation. As fast and easy as we can possess things, we should be equally ready to divest ourselves of it.

Isn't this called charity? So why is a priest advocating shoplifting? Shoplifting is stealing from someone whose livelihood depends on the SALE of those goods to make a living, so he/she can DONATE to charity!

Am I wrong, or is he? Am I just now discovering the roots of Socialism? If I'm right, Glenn Beck's gonna flip out!

Posted by Cute at 7:56 PM

Labels: social issues