A Quick Economics Lesson from
St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope Leo XIII

Extract from Father Denis Fahey

          In his treatise on civil government (De Regimine Principum, C. I, c. 15) the Angelic Doctor [St. Thomas Aquinas] points out that “two things are necessary for a good life. The chief requisite is virtuous action .... The other requisite, which is secondary and quasi-instrumental in character, is a sufficiency of material goods, the use of which is necessary for virtuous action.” Man is composed of body and soul. Accordingly, that the multitude of men or the average man, to express it another way, may be able to lead a virtuous life without being obliged to be heroic, the needs of the body must be provided for in suitable fashion.

          Now, “natural wealth is that which serves man as a remedy for his natural wants: such as food, drink, clothing, vehicles, dwellings and such like. Artificial wealth is that which is not a direct help to nature: as for instance, money. This latter is invented by the art of man for the convenience of exchange and as a measure of things saleable” (Ia. Hae., Q. II. a. I, c.). Money therefore as a means of exchange is meant to facilitate the obtaining by men of that sufficiency of material goods, or natural wealth, which is required to satisfy the needs of the body, so that the soul may be set free for contemplation. It is clear, then, that the manipulation of money or token wealth can become a terrible instrument in the hands of adversaries of the supernatural Messias and of the supernatural life He confers, by hampering instead of facilitating exchange. “The desire for natural riches is not unlimited, because they suffice for nature in a certain measure; but the desire for artificial wealth is unlimited, for it is the servant of disordered concupiscence” (Ia. Hae., Q. 2, a. 1  ad 3). The lust for power and control, thanks to the mastery of token-wealth, is such disordered concupiscence.

          Efforts must therefore be made to bring about an organization of society in which the life of the people will not be subordinate to and at the mercy of Stock Exchange operations and financial coups by the few. Already, in the great Encyclical Rerum Novarum, May 15th, 1891, Pope Leo XIII had alluded to the havoc wrought by usury. “For the ancient working-men's guilds were abolished in the last century and no other organization took their place. Public institutions and the very laws have set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees, it has come to pass that workingmen have been surrendered, all isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with the like injustice still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added … the concentration of so many branches of trade in the hands of a few individuals, so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself. “

    - from The Kingship of Christ According to the Principles of St. Thomas Aquinas by Father Denis Fahey

Posted Oct. 13, 2008
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