This article analyzes Alexis de Tocqueville’s eloquent and noble 1848 “Speech on the Right to Work.” The speech provides Tocqueville’s most powerful and sustained critique of socialism. Socialism is taken to task for its “energetic, continuous , immoderate appeal to the material passions of men,” for its “continuous” attack on the “very principles of private property,” and for its scorn for individual reason and initiative. Tocqueville argues that democracy and socialism are at their heart “contradictory things.” But at the same time, Tocqueville affirms a Christian and democratic obligation for government to provide “public charity” for the poor. For all his concerns about tutelary despotism and the socialist subversion of democracy, he did not oppose the welfare state per se, at least in a modest form. The article shows that Tocqueville’s “Christian democratic” vision provides a principled, humane, and morally serious alternative to both libertarianism and collectivism.

This document, drafted by SCSS Treasurer and UN Non-Governmental Organization Representative D. Brian Scarnecchia, was submitted on behalf of the SCSS and a sister Catholic NGO in response to a request for papers concerning recommendations to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

This was one of SCSS president and Franciscan University of Steubenville professor Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left Nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared initially in Crisismagazine.com on May 1, 2013. It argues why the U.S. criminal justice system is in a state of crisis. It argues that what seem to be ideologically-oriented critiques of the problems of the system actually have their basis in traditional Christian thinking.

The inadequacy of secular humanistic understandings of human sexuality has been demonstrated in the contemporary dissatisfaction with the superficiality of sexual activity and romantic relationships. The limitations of the secular psychology that gave rise to the debased contemporary view of sexuality—exemplified in the work of Carl Rogers—can be overcome by applying the fuller personalist anthropology of Pope John Paul II. This application is made by examining the topics of man’s relationship with God, subjectivity versus subjectivism, the source and character of morality, the nature of freedom, and the nature of marriage.

This article is concerned with four questions. How are decisions made in economic affairs? What role does freedom play in a market economy? How important is freedom in a market economy? How best to preserve freedom of economic initiative? Based on responses to those questions, we argue that a personalist economy with its reliance on intermediary groups and preservation of economic freedom represents an alternative to the individualism of capitalism and the collectivism of socialism. The evidence presented breaks the stereotype of private group decision-making as collusive and demonstrates that a personalist economy is a functioning reality in the United States.

This response to Daniel Mahoney’s symposium paper raises the question of whether Tocqueville’s “middle way” between libertarianism and socialism is ultimately tenable, due to the tendency of people under democratic regimes to pursue equality more passionately than they defend liberty.

The New Evangelization presumes that Catholic schools play a valuable role in spreading the gospel and transmitting the faith. For the first time in their collective history, demographic changes have nevertheless made it difficult for Catholic schools in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to do this. Using a mixed-method study with data obtained from fourteen institutions, this study determined that the mandate of these schools is affected by challenges related to their Catholic identity and financial stability. With limited resources at their disposal, administrators of these institutions are in a precarious situation. Without strong leadership and support from the international community, the future of Catholic education in the region is uncertain.

Pope Benedict XVI’s social encyclical Caritas in Veritate offers insight into the relationship between theology and economics, between moral principles and economic policy. This article highlights potential obstacles to the reception of the emeritus pope’s arguments, identifies the encyclical’s principal lesson in one key sentence, and argues that there are compelling reasons for scholars and policymakers to consider and even appropriate Benedict’s substantial teaching on the enduring social question.

Originally delivered as a lecture at the Center for Catholic Studies, Nassau Community College, New York, October 5, 2013, this address outlines the ways in which the lives of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II exemplify the following principle: although union with God in Christ (holiness) is the common aim of Christians, there are many paths to achieve this within the context of every individual life (sanctity). The address anticipated the canonization of John and John Paul on April 27, 2014.

At one time, the American Medical Association (AMA) had a strong pro-life position regarding unborn human beings. Using an online AMA archives database, this research note contrasts early AMA pro-life commentary with its eventual pro-choice position. Strong pro-life advocacy in the mid-to-late 1800s, led by doctors such as Horatio Storer, gave way in the 1900s to a waning of pro-life zeal, and eventually developed into a pro-choice stance on abortion.

During the eighteenth century a priest in Mexico City wrote a novena to the once renowned St. Boniface of Tarsus to assist Christians trapped in sexual immorality. This saint was chosen in particular because of the sinful life that preceded his spectacular repentance and martyrdom. Unfortunately, the decline in devotion to St. Boniface has been accompanied by a misinterpretation of the novena by some modern readers who see it as focused exclusively on homosexuality. While the Mexican priest took a hard line against the sexual sins of his day, his novena reflects psychological insight and pastoral sensitivity that are consistent with contemporary approaches to addiction and therefore remain quite relevant.

This paper offers a concrete example how subsidiarity and solidarity can both be advanced together in political and economic strategies. The de facto case study deals with the intersection between privately owned transport industries engaged in global trade (e.g., national railroads, transoceanic shipping lines) and local, state and federal agencies attentive to the national economy and responsible for public investments and safety regulations. The model features a broad roundtable element together with other overlapping but more focused initiatives to implement identified action packages. Ten adaptable and transferable lessons are identified.

The thought of these philosophic thinkers structures this study. Both perceive an affinity between democracy and “unlimited government.” Tocqueville’s thought sometimes reflects Catholic sensibilities and themes. Benedict’s thought reflects Catholic orthodoxy. Both thinkers, separated by 170 years, emphasize respectively “despotism” and “dictatorship,” which they think democracy is open to, endangered by, and tends towards. While Tocqueville sees the danger as “democracy,” and Benedict sees it as “relativism,” they are describing the same phenomenon. “Democratic despotism” results from attenuating the “habits of restraint” undergirding democracy; and the “dictatorship” embodies the despotism in our time.

This was one of SCSS president and Franciscan University of Steubenville professor Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left Nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared initially in Crisismagazine.com on September 17, 2013. It points to the curious similarities between what the adherents of the Albigensian heresy (a version of Gnosticism)—which, incidentally, helped trigger the Inquisition—believed and current cultural perspectives. The parallels between the Albigensians and the current age, especially on sexual and human life questions and male-female relations, are striking.

This was one of SCSS president and Franciscan University of Steubenville professor Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left Nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared initially in Crisismagazine.com on February 3, 2013. It discusses the ongoing assault by secularist groups to cleanse American public life of any vestiges of religion. This radical separationism, which had its roots in the post-Civil War period and essentially was embraced by the U.S. Supreme Court in its long line of establishment clause decisions, is completely contrary to the thinking of the Founding Fathers and the predominant culture of earlier America. Krason calls for a renewed effort, at different levels, to reclaim America’s historically religious and Christian culture.