SILVIO BERETTA

Stato ed economia nel discorso sociale della Chiesa a cento anni dalla Rerum Novarum

N. 156

Summary - After having synthetically outlined the most important developments of the Social Catholic Movement in some European countries (especially France, Germany and Austria) and having emphasized the importance which the debate on the economic tasks of the public authorities had in that context,  the a. dwells on the Italian case, giving prominence to the characteristics of relative backwardness. After a brief analysis of the pontifical documents concerning the legitimacy of the Church to intervene in the socio-economic sphere as well ad in the matter of   "common good" and of the principle of  "subsidiarity",   a review is made of the contents of the principal texts of the social teaching of the Church on the subject, precisely, of the economic duties of the State. The evolution of the social thought of the Church on the subject is examined in relation to the themes of the possession and the use of wealth, and to those of the work, with particular reference (in this second sphere) to the problems of the right of association and of the determination of the retribution. What emerges is a model of State with an interventionist tendency, to which are recognized capacity and responsibilities progressively more incisive in the ambits mentioned above, though under the dual constraint of the pursuance of the common good and the respect of the principle of subsidiarity, in itself preclusive of any statolatric opening.