The HHS Mandate & The Economy

First an economic meltdown and the bailout of companies and banks “too big to fail”; the highest rates of unemployment seen since the Great Depression, and now the infamous “HHS Mandate” that seeks to force all employers, even Catholic ministries like hospitals and universities to pay for contraceptives. Is there a relationship between these things and broader political economy of the United States? There is, and the Church saw it coming more than 100 years ago. What might a rightly-ordered society look like, and how would it avoid these evils?

Join Credo on Sunday, June 10^th at 6 PM in Clayton Missouri for our next Forum featuring author Thomas Storck. He  will begin with the question: What is the purpose of an economy? and will proceed to describe a system of thought that was developed primarily in England as a direct Catholic response to Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, itself a response to increasing calls for Big Government to protect people against Big Business.

Register Here by Noon on Wednesday, June 6^th. After that, no guarantees but e-mail us here and be sure to leave your phone number.

Since Rerum Novarum, in too many cases, it has been Catholic bishops, religious, and laity calling for more and more Federal programs to take over functions that families, cities, states, professional societies, industry associations, and (indeed) the Church can adequately do. Now it often seems that these other constituents of society have lost the will or even the capacity to solve their problems on their own.

We find ourselves in Belloc’s Servile State because Catholics have forgotten the concept of Subsidiarity. Conservative Americans often confuse Subsidiarity and Federalism. So do Progressive Americans. Storck will point out areas of agreement between the Catholic Vision and traditional American values, as well as problem areas.

A Catholic Vision

Subsidiarity amounts to the Church’s argument against Big Government in the sense “Meddlesome Government”. This concept is often misunderstood and might well be the topic of another Forum. But what have the Popes taught about Big Business? Or for that matter Small Business? Or the Family Business? In what sort of political economy are families best fostered?

These were hot topics among Catholics in the early part of the 20th century: great thinkers like Chesterton, Belloc, McNabb, and Penty grappled with them. And now we see that we must grapple with them again—not for material advantage but rather for the salvation of souls.

About the Speaker

Thomas Storck has been intrigued with Catholic social thought since he first read Richard Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism in high school. This book began a life-long interest in the social teachings of the Catholic Church.

He was received into the Church in 1978 and in 1983 began writing regularly on Catholic social teaching, Catholic culture, and other theological and philosophical topics.  He is the author of three books, The Catholic Milieu (Christendom Press, 1987), Foundations of a Catholic Political Order (Four Faces Press, 1998) and Christendom and the West (Four Faces Press, 2000).

His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, periodicals and websites in North America and Europe. He served as a contributing editor for Caelum et Terra from 1991 until the magazine closed in 1996 and the New Oxford Review from 1996 to 2006. Since 1998 he has been a member of the editorial board of The Chesterton Review.

Mr. Storck has taught history at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, and philosophy at Mt. Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania and Catonsville Community College in Catonsville, Maryland. He holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and an M.A. from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, with additional studies in history at Bluffton College and in economics at the USDA Graduate School in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Storck was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Ohio. He and his wife Inez have four children and five grandchildren.

Menu

This time you have a choice between a Baked Pork Chop with Apple/Sage Sauce, and Spanish Whitefish with a picante salsa in a bed of rice. As ever, you may order a vegetarian meal, but it is Chef’s Choice as to exactly what it is. Entrees are served with salad, rolls, appropriate veggie, dessert, iced tea, and coffee.

Registration

Join us for a terrific meal and talk outlining a Catholic response to the depredations of Big Government and Big Business. Register Here by Noon on Wednesday, June 6^th. After that, no guarantees but e-mail us here and be sure to leave your phone number. We look forward to seeing all of our friends at the Forum.

Recommended Reading

The Servile State. By Hilaire Belloc, 1912. Available at Amazon. George Orwell described the book as written in a "tiresome style" and argued that the remedy it suggested was "impossible". However, he considered it foretold the sort of things that were happening in the 1930s with "remarkable insight" and continues to do so.

Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Ideal. Available at Amazon. Storck contributed the chapter titled “Capitalism and Distributism: Two Systems at War” A longer version of this chapter appears on Storck’s website.

The Church and the Libertarian by Christopher A. Ferrara. Available at Amazon. Ferrara shows that Libertarianism is incompatible with the Faith. It might be noted that past Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was a Libertarian, and Ayn Rand herself attended his swearing-in. We have seen the results. Storck reviewed the book for New Oxford Review.