Performing Intrinsic Evils
* Meaning of Catholic Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/live/q8VDT1jbKRA?si=Lw_ZiD9GJC-qWSD8&t=3079
* “Just because something is intrinsically evil does not necessarily mean you can never do it.”
New Polity Shareholding Essay - https://newpolity.com/blog/should-christians-invest-in-the-stockmarket
Declaration that money is evil or has the appearance of evil
* Jacob Imam’s Dissertation - https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c1dbc396-a8de-49ec-9f0c-3bfd8e89f4c8/files/d1c18dg33r
* Note: In the video I said “royal courts” when the canon discusses courts of law. This does diminish the overall point that the Council is not declaring money evil or having the appearance of evil, but with respect to the behavior of the Franciscans especially in light of their vows.
Almost nothing is said about the nature of money in conciliar statements. The most notable exception to this claim comes from the Council of Vienne in 1312. Determining a very special case of the Spiritual Franciscans, canon 38, stated that monks ought never have money on their persons, declaring money to be “evil” (malum) or having “the appearance of evil,” (quod speciem habet mali).
Toward a Catholic Theolog of Money, 10
* Council of Vienne - https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum15.htm
Further, not only what is known to be evil, but also everything which has the appearance of evil, should be specially avoided by perfect men. Now, to be present in court and urge their case, when the law is concerned with matters of advantage to them, leads people to believe from external appearances that the friars present are seeking something as their own. In no way, therefore, ought the friars who profess this rule and vow, to meddle in legal processes in such courts. By abstention they will be thought well of by outsiders, and they will live up to the purity of their vow and avoid scandal to their neighbour. Indeed, the friars are to be complete strangers not only to the acceptance, possession, ownership or use of money, but even to any handling of it, as our said predecessor has repeatedly and clearly said in his interpretation of the rule. Also, the members of this order cannot go to law for any temporal thing. The friars may therefore not lend themselves to such legal processes, but rather consider them forbidden by the purity of their state, because these activities cannot be concluded without litigation and the management or administration of money. Nevertheless they do not act in a manner contrary to their state if they give advice for the execution of these affairs, since this advice does not confer upon them any jurisdiction or legal authority or administration with regard to temporal goods.
Council of Vienne, 36
Gospel Simplicity - Insurance is a structure of sin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azINTDiFNuc&t=2471s
* List of some papal statements in favor of insurance:
https://twitter.com/LendHopeNothing/status/1724552930345226492
Pius XI on Ownership and Justice - https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius11/p11quadr.htm
In order to place definite limits on the controversies that have arisen over ownership and its inherent duties there must be first laid down as foundation a principle established by Leo XIII: The right of property is distinct from its use.[30] That justice called commutative commands sacred respect for the division of possessions and forbids invasion of others’ rights through the exceeding of the limits of one’s own property; but the duty of owners to use their property only in a right way does not come under this type of justice, but under other virtues, obligations of which “cannot be enforced by legal action.”[31] Therefore, they are in error who assert that ownership and its right use are limited by the same boundaries; and it is much farther still from the truth to hold that a right to property is destroyed or lost by reason of abuse or non-use.
Quadragesimo Anno, 47
Benedict XVI on shareholders
Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise. Old models are disappearing, but promising new ones are taking shape on the horizon. Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for businesses is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limiting their social value. Owing to their growth in scale and the need for more and more capital, it is becoming increasingly rare for business enterprises to be in the hands of a stable director who feels responsible in the long term, not just the short term, for the life and the results of his company, and it is becoming increasingly rare for businesses to depend on a single territory. Moreover, the so-called outsourcing of production can weaken the company's sense of responsibility towards the stakeholders — namely the workers, the suppliers, the consumers, the natural environment and broader society — in favour of the shareholders, who are not tied to a specific geographical area and who therefore enjoy extraordinary mobility. Today's international capital market offers great freedom of action. Yet there is also increasing awareness of the need for greater social responsibility on the part of business. Even if the ethical considerations that currently inform debate on the social responsibility of the corporate world are not all acceptable from the perspective of the Church's social doctrine, there is nevertheless a growing conviction that business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business: the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference.
Caritas in Veritate, 40
