Two Approaches to Catholic Social Teaching

To Honor Christ? Or to Protest...and Re-distribute Wealth

(Waterloo, ON, CA: XIII Books, 2025)

Good news: the term “Catholic Social Teaching” (CST) has gained greater visibility.

Bad news: It is often poorly or incorrectly defined.

Peter Kwasniewski’s book on the subject goes a long way towards correcting that. His version of CST is set in a hierarchical framework with Christ the King of the here and now, not just at some fuzzy future time. And how is that achieved? “Societies are glued together by charity,” he writes, “and charity is nourished by truth—the truth about God, the truth about man. There is no more elementary lesson of CST, as can be seen in nearly every encyclical from Gregory XVI to Benedict XVI” (298). And Kwasniewski relies heavily on papal teaching in his elucidation and defense of CST, in particular the writings of Leo XIII…and not just Rerum Novarum.

This valuable book paints in broad strokes, and always in a hopeful manner: “There will never be [contra the socialists] ‘heaven on earth’ for fallen man, but the Christian life can be heaven’s antechamber, with blessings from above descending on families, friendships, and cultural pursuits here below” (194).

The author does a good job of providing historical background and philosophical and theological underpinnings. He makes a stout defense of private property and a correct understanding of distributism. All the elements needed for CST to properly function are covered, especially the family. The world of today downplays, ignores, or even attempts to vivisect the family, but Leo XIII and others correctly saw that the family is the God-ordained backbone of a healthy society.

The one weak aspect of Kwasniewski’s book is when he assumes the role of the scold. In other instances, his wit and charm come through, but the role of scolder ill-suits him.

“The only question for us is this: Will we do everything in our power, relying on God’s grace, to live in communion with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World, and to lead souls and social bodies to Him" (40)? Indeed, for CST is about much more than protesting against injustice or re-distributing wealth.

Unfortunately, Kwasniewski’s book was not available to the Catholic Worker (CW). That movement (because it could never be called an organization of an apostolate) failed to make change in the world because from the start it stayed closer to its socialist-anarchist roots than its Catholic patina. Demonstrations, soup kitchens with no Gospel content, and failed experiments in farming were its fruits.

I have written about Dorothy Day twice before:

And here:

I will write more in the weeks ahead (God-willing), and use mainly her words to make the case against her version of CST. But for now, just consider one of her significant collaborators, Ammon Hennacy. Hennacy would serve no one but himself and his poorly-formed conscience, whereas Kwasniewski offers us a vision of humanity in the service of the King of Kings.

You can Buy Greg a Coffee at this link. I donate funds from here to an orphanage in India run by the Consoling Sisters. Money earned from my Crisis articles goes to a great Catholic school for boys in Kentucky, St. Andrew’s Academy.

I have two self-published books available on Amazon; both are in verse: Against the Alchemists, which is a loosely-linked catechism in verse; and, A Verse Companion to Romano Guardini’s Sacred Signs, a sort of commentary on Guardini’s wonderful little book on many aspects of the liturgy and worship.