As the first year of Pope Francis's papacy unfolds it has been clear from the outset that he has plenty to say about the free market economy. Critics on the ideological right have been swift to point out his relative silence on social issues such as abortion (despite the fact that in May he joined 40 000 pro-life activists on the streets of Rome). But what Francis understands that many of us fail to grasp is the intimate link that exists between the economic reality we find ourselves in and the collapse of social morality.
The widespread legalisation and acceptance of the murder of the unborn did not just pop into existence overnight by way of some sort of instantaneous demonic possession of the social consciousness (although I have no doubt of the diabolical nature of the abortion industry). Rather, acceptance of such evil has emerged as part of a broader way of seeing reality that has slowly entrenched itself into the mind of post-industrialised society.
The absolute autonomy of the individual, the unquestioned goals of pleasure, comfort and wealth, and the subsequent commodification of human sexuality are at the root of the social malaise much of the world now finds itself in. (As recent studies have shown, one in four South African men admit to having raped before, while only one in three children grow up with fathers at home.) In today's world economic activity is not merely one social dimension out of many—it dominates our post-modern reality and provides the very matrix in which everything else finds its meaning and reason for being. Everything is for sale and everything has a price. (In Brazil, where Francis has just visited for World Youth Day, teenagers are auctioning off their virginity online to the highest bidder, attracting offers of over $750 000.)
Francis understands that while there is an important place for activism on behalf of the rights of the unborn, and an important place for the defence of traditional marriage, the most effective way in which to counter the prevailing moral collapse is to rather lift the gaze of society beyond the allure of wealth and consumerism, and beyond its vision of an atomised and fragmented society that has been blindly accepted under the guises of autonomy and liberty. These are the real roots of the problem. True conversion is not merely an assent to each individual moral teaching of the Church, but a radical (from Late Latin radicalis: “of or pertaining to the root”) re-orientation that takes place when we encounter Jesus, a new horizon that expands far beyond the confines of the individualism, affluence and materialism that seek to distract and enslave us. Francis knows exactly what has enticed the modern world from its eternal calling, but he also knows what will bring us back.
In a homily towards the end of May, he made the link between our economic reality and our moral collapse clear. As an example of what he termed 'the anaesthesia of affluence', he spoke of married couples who, confronted with the choice that the world presents to them between having children and travelling the world or buying a new house, opt for the latter. Contraception is, as the Church has always taught, an intrinsic evil that deserves to be tackled head-on, but it is also a symptom of a much broader worldview in which our actions are only desirable or meaningful insofar as they either provide temporary satisfaction or contribute towards financial security and social status.
The ability to see the entirety of our actions—whether in our sex lives or in the market place—in the light of our faith is what enables us to hear the call to conversion. Distributism is often misunderstood as purely a political program or an economic alternative to Socialism or Capitalism. While the ideals of Catholic Social Teaching it embodies (especially those of solidarity and subsidiarity) certainly do need to be enacted on a political and economic level, at its heart is the call to a deeper encounter with the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of men.
Pope Francis doesn't want the world to merely know what the Church teaches on moral issues like marriage, abortion and contraception. As he said to journalists on his flight back to Rome from Rio, the world already knows (and ignores and ridicules) what the Church teaches. Rather, by confronting the allure of temporary satisfaction and the illusion of lasting affluence, Francis is bidding today's Church to free herself from what threatens to hold her back, so that—in the footsteps of a peasant girl who walked the earth 2000 years ago—she can authentically bear Christ to a broken world. It is in that encounter that conversion will take place.
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