Despite the strident and personal tone of this open letter to Dr. Thomas Woods, the substance of Chris Ferrara’s article, “Ludwig von Mises versus Christ, the Gospel and the Church,” makes it a compact resume of the Catholic response to laissez faire economics. Liberalism — political, economic, and religious — has ever been opposed to, and opposed by, the Church’s dogmatic and social teaching.
The reality is that much of what passes for “conservatism” in the United States is really only the right wing of our national liberalism. (If you wish to hear this idea expanded upon, listen to virtually any lecture by Gary Potter.) Because of this, libertarianism can pass for conservative. We ought to let the Church’s perennial teachings guide us, rather than the leaders and architects of political movements which have no Christian foundation.
Recommended reading: Ethics and the National Economy, and Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Ideal.
