Social Justice and Capitalism: An Assessment of the Teachings of Pope Francis from a Law and Macroeconomics Perspective

The first part of this Article will synthesize the key teachings of Pope Francis from his most important statements on economic structures and social justice and situate these teachings within contemporary economic realities and traditional social justice teachings. Part II of this Article will demonstrate that the Pope’s teachings on social justice fundamentally reflect the best learning from economists on how to sustain economic growth. Part III of this Article will show that nations that undertake policies to pursue the fundamental tenets of the Pope’s teachings (such as minimizing childhood poverty) also perform the best in achieving high human development outcomes for the mass of their citizens. This Article will therefore conclude that the recent teachings of Pope Francis (and the Catholic Church) on the topics of social justice and the environment are fully consistent with the most robust systems of capitalism in the world today as well as with traditional economic thinking, going as far back as Adam Smith. Therefore, legal policymakers (including all branches and agencies of the government) should work to impound the core elements of these teachings to the maximum extent possible to create the most robust and sustainable capitalism possible