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Good article! The trend in Latin America is indeed quite troubling, although most of the leftists there no longer seem to be connected with the Church, or not officially, at least.

However, that way of thinking has caused a lot of trouble in the US, as well. One of its most profound effects has been to make it seem as if corporate behavior is the sole problem, and individual behavior is of no importance - or, in fact, that individual behavior is directly a function of corporate behavior, and therefore no one is responsible for anything they do. The eeevil capitalist society made them do it.

Christianity is about the individual, who becomes part of the Body of Christ by becoming a Christian, but who does so only on the basis of his individual decision and maintains his life in the Body only through his individual decisions (moral choices). However, there is no longer any sense of individual responsibility in the Church. The loss of the sense of sin is both the result and the enabling cause of this.

And I think it all goes back to the soft Marxism that invaded the Church at Vatican II (although it had been trying to sneak in for decades). However, few theologians and bishops blatantly advocate Marxist economics; what they encourage instead is the collective over the individual. And this is incompatible with Christianity.

Another neo Catholic libertarian who plays with the encyclical Rerum Novarum to pick and choose that which will accomodate his defense of those things in the capitalist system that Pope Leo XIII prophetically criticized, (and which have come to pass). Not to mention how Fr. Sirico quotes Chesterton without mentioning that Chesterton was not a fan of the system either but advocated what Belloc termed, Distributism, which Fr. Sirico equates as socialistic, when in reality it refered to putting into action the things which Pope Leo XIII wrote about, such as fair wages, & property ownership of individual workingmen. Pick and choose that which will support your own arguments, and ignore true Catholic teaching.

John Sharpe wrote an excellent article on the subject which touches on many of the points raised by Fr. Sirico in his article "Liberal Economics vs. Catholic Truth". (Don't fail to note what Sharpe writes about the current infatuation libertarians are engaged in when they discuss the Spanish Scholastics). HIs article can be found here:
http://www.seattlecatholic.com/article_20021103_Liberal_Economics_vs_Catholic_Truth_pr.html

Sounds like there's a race in Latin America between business and prosperity on the one hand, and those who want to destroy business and prosperity on the other.

Those who are at the bottom of the economic ladder are often distracted from climbing by those who are preaching the ladder must be brought down.

From what I've read, however, there is one country that has clearly chosen capitalism: Nicaraqua. Having lived through the Sandinista nightmare, they have consistently voted for pro-business governments ever since those evil-doers in the White House helped usher in a Nicaraquan democracy.

(I'll never forget all those Ollie-North-The-Villain news stories. Peter Jennings would roll his r's when pronouncing Nicaraqua. Somehow that was further proof that Ollie was a bad guy.)

Socialism, however, can never be an answer to human ills. Leo XIII said it "would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community," and he was precisely correct. Pope Pius XI (1922-39) was even clearer. He wrote, "No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist."

Sadly, Fr. Sirico seems to be the only priest in our country aware of these papal statements. He's fought a long, solitary battle, and fought it well.