It can be difficult to do good for others when one is hungry, when one has bills to pay, or when other people are relying on a person to care for them. It can be hard to denounce evil and to “fear not” when one has plenty to fear in terms of their survival. Responding to basic needs of people is thus a key part of preaching the gospel – and so economic justice is an important part of Catholic theology. 

Economic justice, though, is not the prosperity gospel that is often seen in megachurches, as this form of the gospel often focuses on profit or material wealth without understanding the systems at work that harm rather than helping people authentically prosper in the long term. Rather, Catholic social thought rejects a neoliberal capitalist way of understanding the market that disregards human dignity, the environment, and the common good, and instead advocates for an economic system that leads to genuine integral human development.

Rather than overly prioritize profit above all, economic justice requires a radically sufficient order, given the prevalence of economic insufficiency. Economic insufficiency is seen in how resources are often stretched thin for many people; one small setback such as a hospital visit or car breakdown can quickly spiral into job loss or loss of resources. Christine Firer Hinze, drawing from the work of Monsignor John A. Ryan, argues for a livelihood agenda committed to radical sufficiency – such radical sufficiency is characterized by a high quality of life that is not driven by consumption to maintain said quality, but rather by inclusive and sustainable livelihood. In her book Radical Sufficiency: Work, Livelihood, and a US Catholic Economic Ethic, she states: “[radical sufficiency] envisages work and economic livelihood as parts of holistic, flourishing life that eschews both workaholism and the work-spend squirrel cage, and includes time and resources for rest, leisure, self-development, family and personal relationships, and community and civic participations” (264-265).

A commitment to this radical sufficiency becomes the focal commitment of priorities, policies, and strategies from the national level down to smaller organizations and individuals. Firer Hinze writes, “Everyone must be enabled to participate, and everyone must be able to gain access to enough” (265).  A radically sufficient economic agenda also means changing the ways in which we evaluate what good economics and business looks like, requiring us to utilize alternative metrics to the traditional quantitative and financial criteria used. 

Such a vision asks for radical change in the way the present economic systems are structured, through identifying and advocating for “the wisest, most prudent, and timeliest courses of action in light of Catholic social principles, the circumstances at hand, and the best possible grasp of ‘economic and industrial facts’” (269). It also asks that individuals practice the virtues of solidarity and sufficiency, rather than constant consumerism or anxiety that others’ gains will always mean one’s loss – an “economy of enough” rather than an economy driven by a wanting of more materially. Consumption serves integral human development only up to a certain degree, after which it becomes damaging instead to both people and the environment. 

Entailing both incremental changes, as well as deep shifts and reorientations of attitudes, cultures, and systems at work, a radically sufficient agenda that fosters economic justice is primarily concerned with the well-being of creation, people included. This means keeping principles and policies that align with the commitment of radical sufficiency, while also radically modifying or even rejecting those principles and policies that do not.

Think about the Our Father prayer, something we as Catholics say often, and its currents of economic and social justice:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Economy of Communion is an offshoot of Chiara Lubich’s Focolare movement that has sought to make business and economics more inclusive and more integrated.  On their website, they explain that the Economy of Communion “is, first of all, rooted in two ideals of the Focolare; that we might all be one, and that none among us be in need. It therefore unites those in material and spiritual need with entrepreneurs, their companies, customers, employees, competitors, and suppliers in a global effort to create material and spiritual abundance and to freely share that abundance in ways that make us all better off. One of the crucial manifestations of this project is the more than 800 businesses around the world (more than 40 in North America) whose owners and founders commit their business activity to these ideals.

• They willingly share profits to help those in material need, provide opportunities for meaningful work, offer products and services that meet real human and social needs, and seek to manage their companies with moral integrity.
• At the same time, they seek to promote these ideals by their actions and involvement in their local communities, and by serving in a mentoring and support role to each other.”

The late Joey Velasco’s work Hapag ng Pag-Asa (translated to Table of Hope) asks us also to reflect on this work for economic justice. The painting depicts The Last Supper but instead of the apostles, Jesus is eating with poor children, who are often found on the streets in the Philippines and forgotten, falling through the cracks of the trickle-down economic system that continues to prevail in mainstream business and economics. 

Image description: Against a black background, Jesus sits in the middle of a long table wearing a lit up beige tunic and head covering, while he breaks the bread. Surrounding him are filipino children with brown skin, many wearing worn out clothing. Some eat or drink while others watch Jesus.