Subsidiarity

Pope Leo’s Ideal Was Not State Control

Pope Leo XIII affirms that a well governed State will promote the material and moral prosperity of its citizens, will honor private property and free association, and will protect the poor from abuse or depredation by the rich. How to…

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The Modern State Causes the Problems it Pretends to Fix

by Anthony Esolen

Pope Leo XIII affirms that a well governed State will promote the material and moral prosperity of its citizens, will honor private property and free association, and will protect the poor from abuse or depredation by the rich. How to…

Paul Ryan’s Bishop Defends “Good Reputation” of “Native Son”

by Bishop Robert C. Morlino

Editor’s note: Below is a column by Madison, Wisconsin bishop Robert C. Morlino addressed to the faithful of his diocese that appeared Thursday, August 16, in the Madison Catholic Herald under the title “Subsidiarity, Solidarity, and the Lay Mission.” Here,…

Subsidy or Subsidiarity

by Gerald J. Russello

Individualism and community are the opposite halves of the American character. For every myth of the self-made man, there is the image of the closely knit New England small town. For every lone cowboy on the frontier, there are the…

Subsidiarity on Earth and in Heaven

by Howard Kainz

Several years ago I attended a lecture at Marquette by John Allen, the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, in which he addressed the stereotype of the Vatican passing down commands to be implemented by 5000 bishops and subordinate…

Private Charity Versus Government Welfare

by Rev. C. J. McCloskey III

Less than three years has passed since the publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical, Charity in Truth. As some readers may remember, the encyclical caused quite a stir both in secular and religious circles — as have many of…

Resisting Obamacare with the Interstate Compact

by Brian Saint-Paul

On April 26, 1783, two weeks after Congress approved a preliminary peace treaty with England, the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey entered into a compact over their shared use of the Delaware River. The waterway was an important shipping…

Community: A Conversation with Wendell Berry

by Anne Husted Burleigh

Wendell Berry, novelist, essayist, poet, and farmer, is a central contributor to the growing renaissance of Christian culture. Although he does not, in his lean careful writing, broach religion directly, he writes as one completely at home with the Christian…

Subsidiarity and Human Dignity

by Deal W. Hudson

In my column last week, I asked the question, “Does the USCCB understand subsidiarity?” I received a variety of responses to that piece, the most interesting being from Msgr. Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian, who posted his thoughts…

The “How To” Problem

by Eric Pavlat

One of the biggest problems with Distributism–the idea that economies should not be based on corporations (pure capitalism) or on the State (pure socialism), but on individuals and families–is the question of how to achieve that goal. Frequent commenter R.C….