Universal Destination of Goods, Participation, Solidarity and Subsidiarity.

Universal Destination of Goods, Participation, Solidarity and Subsidiarity.

Before touching onto the topic itself, one must understand the derivation and the underlying concepts behind it.

The universal destination of goods, is technically a concept in catholic theology, originating from the doctrines and resulting from the study of theologians. It is most precisely based on the canonical scriptures and sacred tradition as interpreted by the magisterium of the catholic church with the sole authority.

The concept of universal destination of goods, the catholic church profressesthat the goods of creation, which fairly implies to natural world are destined for the humanity as a whole and it also recognizes the individual rights to private property.

As written by Pope Paul VI om encyclical Populorum progressio,

“Everyone knows that the Fathers of the Church laid down the duty of the rich toward the poor in no uncertain terms. As St. Ambrose put it: “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich”

Importance of Undestanding the destination of goods

In general we can specifically understand that the above quote precisely wants to show us the following key principles (non exhaustive):

  1. Human Dignity

    “Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession facts, and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give.

  2. Subsidiarity

    Subsidiarity charts a course between the individualistic approach to life and collectivism by locating the responsibilities and privileges of social life in the smallest unit of organization at which they will function.

    Gregory Beabout suggests that subsidiarity draws upon a far older concept as well: the Roman military term subsidium. He writes that “the role of the subsidium (literally, to sit behind) is to lend help and support in case of need.”

    Larger social bodies, be they the state or otherwise, are permitted and required to intervene only when smaller ones cannot carry out the tasks themselves. Even in this case, the intervention must be temporary and for the purpose of empowering the smaller social body to be able to carry out such functions on its own.

  3. Solidarity

    Solidarity refers to a strong and preserving determination to commit oneself to the good of the common, which is specifically not merely “vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others” (Joseph Donders, John Paul II: The Encyclicals in Everyday Language).

    Solidarity also flows from faith and is the fundamental to the christian view of social and political organizations.

  4. Charity

    As per the Caritas in veritate, the Catholic Church declared that “Charity is at the heart of the Church”. Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (Matthew 22:36–40)

    Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in God and the Bible

    It precisely represents that the one who receives charity is not being given something for free, but instead is receiving what is his own. It technically implies that the charity is an action not just limited to the grandiose, and the rich. And it also implies that those who perform charity are in no way different. They are as human as the receiving side

  5. Distributism and Social Justice

    Distributism refers to the school of economic and social thought developed by Catholic thinkers such as G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.

    As per Rerum Novarum,

    “We have seen that this great labor question cannot be solved save by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.”

    It holds that social and economic structures should promote social justice, and that social justice is best served through a wide distribution of ownership.

Application of Universal destination of Goods

Precisely condensing the ideas, we have one of the following two situations:

  1. the universal destination of goods, and

  2. the legitimacy of private property.

As we can see that they are a conflicting, but perhaps the legitimacy of private property could be a subset of the universal destination of goods.

The both-and approach is perplexing to people who prefer to keep things simpler for themselves and others. At the socialist extreme, everything (theoretically!) belongs to everybody; on the libertarian fringe, everybody has an absolute right to do as they will with what’s theirs.

Things get murkier for the collectivists when we ask who gets to distribute or administer all the goods.

“Everybody” turns out the mean “the few, the higher-ups, the well-connected.”

And things get murkier for private property absolutists when claims to ownership start competing with each other.

Henceforth, going by the assumption that we can see value in private ownership we must always thrive to do things in a way that its better for the humanity as a whole.

In Catholic thought and doctrine, neither “the market” nor economic systems, nor political entities have the final word and the Church does not endorse one system over another. All is subject to God; everything that we have comes from God. Therefore, the teaching regarding material goods and the sharing of those goods must be subject to the authority of God, the Creator of all things.

Although the right to personal ownership is recognized in CST, it is still subject to all the laws of God and is to be at the service of all, not to be co-opted by any individual or organization for a means other than that for which it was intended.

“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.” -St. John Chrysostom

“Political authority has the right and duty to regulate legitimate exer- cise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.” (CCC 2406) In our lives, the Church does not impose hard and fast rules, but instead provides the guiding principle so that when in doubt, we make sure that ALL benefit by the goods received and produced and no one is left out. The bottom line: ensure the common good. If you own more than you need, share the surplus. To do otherwise is to violate the Seventh Commandment.