Action is a definitive manual on Catholic Action by one of the 20th Century's great lay Catholic scholars of Catholic Action. This book discusses not only the theory of Catholic Social Action but examines it from practical standpoints: why should Catholic laymen feel called to action for the spread of Catholic social principles in society, how can they make that action effective, and how can they manage the resources available for action. Anyone who has ever felt that something must be done to save society from chaos and collapse should consider this book a must read.

George O'Brien
“In the department of Human Affairs concerned with the economic activities of man, the old universally accepted code of justice fell into disregard, if not into ridicule; and its place was taken, on the one hand, by the theory that the only safe guide for man to follow in these affairs is his own personal interest, and, on the other hand, and partly as a reaction against this repulsive theory, that the individual has no right of initiative at all, but that his whole being must be subordinated to the welfare of the community. Both these theories would have been equally disapproved by the old, despised ethical authority of the Middle Ages, under whose régime they could not have flourished or developed; but, at the time when they arose, that old authority was no longer universally accepted, and there was no power in Europe strong enough to withstand the march of these two dangerous doctrines. The path to both Capitalism and Socialism had been opened by the Reformation.”

A New Statement of an Old Ideal

Obliterating the notion that there are only two choices - right and left - for perspectives on social and economic life, this apologia by twelve Catholics for a socio-economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church offers an outline of independent operator-owners, regulative guilds, and economic science subortinated to morality and the genuine needs of mankind.

Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism is one of the most scholarly and comprehensive treatments of the antagonism between Catholic doctrine and the capitalist spirit. As such it is eminently persuasive. The author, Amintore Fanfani, was the Chair of Economic History at the University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy, and was the heir to a long and unmatched tradition of Italian Social Catholicism, a tradition effectively sanctioned and promoted by Popes Leo XIII and St. Pius X. Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism will be of particular interest to those seeking to better understand both the preconceptions and mentalities that the pioneers of the capitalist system possessed, and the reaction of Catholicism to that system. The book demonstrates, conclusively, that there is a scholarly, intelligent, and convincing answer to the propaganda which suggests that the world is irreparably divided into two camps, the capitalist and socialist.

Most welcome about this edition is the fact that it corrects a pervasive and relatively long-standing error about what the integral Social Doctrine of the Church has to say about the capitalist way of life. For far too long apologists for big business, high finance, and laissez-faire "economics" have dominated the field, and cleverly created the impression that good Catholics are, by definition, capitalists. Au contraire, replies Fanfani, in this definitive exposition of the true approach to capitalsim in light of the Catholic Faith. This edition will go a long way towards correcting a record that for upwards of 20 years has been misrepresented by parties interested more in conforming the Faith to America's "business ethic" than in conforming that ethic to the Catholic Faith.

Easy to read and yet scholarly, accessible and yet referencing literally hundreds of primary sources, this book will change the way Catholics think about economic life. Originally published: London, 1935.

IHS is pleased to present both a coherent, helpful editor's Preface to this edition, along with contributions by two prominent, Catholic economists: the Foreword to this edition is by Dr. Charles M.A. Clark, and the Introduction by Dr. Giorgio Campanini.

Dr. Charles M. A. Clark is Professor of Economics, Tobin College of Business, and Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John's University, New York. He has authored or edited eight books, the most recent of which is The Basic Income Guarantee: Ensuring Progress and Prosperity in the 21st Century (2002).

Dr. Giorgio Campanini is Professor of the History of Political Thought, University of Parma, Italy. He has written several books on political and ethical subjects, including the Catholic political thought of the 19th and 20th centuries (covering figures such as Rosmini, Mounier, Maritain, Sturzo, and Mazzolari). His most recent book is The Burden of the Camel: the Christian Between Wealth and Poverty (2002).

Modern "wisdom" urges people to crowd into cities or their suburbs, to have few children, to live on credit. It teaches them to regard Industrialism as inevitable, and to view a life of speed and noise as both normal and desirable. The Catholic Church teaches the contrary. She proclaims rather that life on the land, the raising of large families, the possession of real wealth over artificial tokens, concern for the needs of men and not those of machines, and a focus on the life to come, constitute the only way to true happiness and contentment. The Church and the Land is a collection of essays and articles by England's famous Dominican Distributist. De facto "chaplain" to the Distributists and the Distributist movement, Fr. McNabb was in many ways the most passionate and fervent of those seeking reform of economic life in the name of truly human values. In over 40 short essays, Fr. McNabb tackles subjects as diverse and yet unified as industrialism, morality and economics, working conditions, and the role of the state in shaping and defending the proper economic conditions. Fr. McNabb's is a common and yet unique voice within the Distributist tradition, for he represents the voice of the Church, with its characteristic concern for morality and the salvation of souls, in economic as well as all other aspects of man's daily life. Originally published: London, 1926.

Distributist Perspectives is a collection of essays by leading thinkers of the school of English Distributists that in the 1920s and 1930s articulated a humane vision of social and economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Church. Subtitled "Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity," and including essays by Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, George Maxwell, Harold Robbins, Cdr. Herbert Shove, H. J. Massingham, and Eric Gill, this first collection of Distributist writings serves as an introduction to the depth and coherence of the Distributist position on such essential topics as the nature of work, the role of tradition, the dangers of industrialism, and the importance to the family and the State of the widespread distribution of ownership of productive property. Volume I of the series offers a rare glimpse through true, primary source material, of the seriousness and persuasiveness of the critique of modernity by some of the finest English Catholic minds of last century. This first volume of Distributist Perspectives also offers a newly edited edition of the Distributist Manifesto, written by Arthur J. Penty for the Distributist League in 1937.

Distributist Perspectives is a collection of essays by leading thinkers of the school of English Distributists that in the 1920s and 1930s articulated a humane vision of social and economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Church. Subtitled "Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity," Contributor Authors include: Hilary Pepler Jorian Jenks George Maxwell K. L. Kenrick Philip Hagreen Viscount Lymington Dorothy Sayers H. J. Massingham S. Sagar Eric Gill Harold Robbins With an introduction by Allan C. Carlson, Ph.D., President, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society

Dollfuss: An Austrian Patriot was written by neo-Thomist professor Fr. Johannes Messner based upon his close association and collaboration with Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria. Messner's account of Dollfuss's life provides a brief sketch of biographical details, but, more importantly, illustrates Dollfuss's social vision and provides an account of his attempt to structure Austrian social and economic life along the lines determined by Quadragesimo Anno. As a leading exponent of Catholic Social Doctrine as it was expressed in the Austrian tradition established by Karl von Vogelsang, Messner is uniquely qualified to highlight the reforms initiated by Dollfuss as they relate to the traditional social vision of the Church.

Dr. Zmirak is a student of traditional and Catholic political economy, and the author of Wilhelm Roepke: Swiss Localist; Global Economist. Dr. von Hildebrand is a frequent writer and lecturer on Catholic culture and related subjects. Her husband, the late Dr. Deitrich von Hildebrand, collaborated with Dollfuss and his associates on the paper of the Austrian state, The Christian Corporative State.

Was the world always irreparably divided between the dead-end poles of Left vs. Right, Capitalist vs. Communist? Or was there in our Western past an integral and harmonious social and political—no less than religious—creed? In this concise but persuasive essay, Dr. O’Brien says there was. And that such a creed can be recovered, with the restoration of the social philosophy that once inspired it.

This classic introduction to the basics of economic theory offers a constructive approach to economic education by defining terms and introducing key concepts without using insider jargon and complex theories. The fundamental questions about why the economy fluctuates and how small farmers, small business people, families, consumers, and innovators are affected by these fluctuations are considered. Serious alternatives to modern economic theories are explained, with attention to the realities that have been largely unchanged through the last century.

Hilaire Belloc is a former member of parliament in the British House of Commons. He is the author of more than 100 books, including Charles I, The Free Press, and The Restoration of Property. Edward A. McPhail is an assistant professor of economics at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Alberto Piedra is a professor emeritus of economics at Catholic University of America, where he was a chairperson of the economics department.

In The Free Press Hilaire Belloc's concern was to get the truth published so that by its very liberating nature it would undermine the rampant and growing subordination of the press (either through direct ownership or advertising) to the vested interests of the super wealthy. In his Essay on the Restoration of Property he tackles the problem of modern man's intensifying servility to the amoral beneficiaries of an economic system that has enabled a minority, a wealthy elite, to monopolize ownership of the means of production. So many Catholics today are confused about the subject of economics. It is a confusion born of an ignorance that, sad to say, is practically universal. Not that the Church has been negligent during the industrial age in her magisterial teachings on socio-economic justice, for she certainly has not. The reign of Christ the King ought to be as morally extensive in the governing of man’s economic interdependence with his neighbors (fellow men) as it is in marriage and family life.

Papal encyclicals often dealt with issues of social justice. Most Catholics have heard of the Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, but how very few have ever read it. Hilaire Belloc was more than well grounded in the social teachings of those Popes who shared his days on earth, he was imbued by them, convinced by them, and committed to them. The publication of this magnificent essay is a hearty expression of that commitment. Catholics, first of all, have to face the reality of their own ignorance and desire to be educated in this field. It will take at least a spark of holy humility, however, for Catholics to realize that the cause of our own downfall and defeat in the social sphere is this unhealthy economic illiteracy. We now find ourselves, and our families, under the heel of a colossal conglomerate of finance, industry and government which is inimical and totally suppressive of Catholic family life. Unless we understand both the problem and the remedy, true Catholic family life, with all of its intrinsic supports for our common vocation to contemplation, will be extremely difficult to restore and live, and to foster and maintain.

This essay will help a great deal in educating the reader in regard to the problem and the remedy. Belloc provides a lucid and straightforward analysis of the prevalent demise of the social order in Christendom, while, at the same time, laying out a truly Catholic economic system that can gradually – if there is a growth of interest and desire – be planted and nurtured. Such a system, which the great thinker calls distributism, will only materialize if it grows naturally in this or that local environment ready and determined to assimilate it organically. Both Capitalism (note: not free enterprise) and Communism (along with its weak sister, Socialism) are completely condemned and exposed for the anti-Catholic, self-defeating and self-destructive economic structures that they are. This book was not written to condemn industry (or technology). Man is inventive by nature. When he manufactures a product he assumes that the product is a good that will enhance the quality of the multiple activities that make for an abundant life. What Belloc sees as destructive, and the reader will find it obvious, is the usurpation of ownership of the means of production (i.e., property) by a wealthy oligarchy of financiers. What we end up with is the crushing of the local and independent tradesman, craftsman, baker and farmer and their replacement by the monopoly. As the brilliantly written introduction to this book by IHS Press puts it: Belloc's vision was nothing less than "a science of reality, based upon a conception not merely of what is . . . but, more importantly, of what ought to be according to the divine and natural law."

Ethics and the National Economy is a sorely-needed treatise on an essential aspect of economics: the role of morality, and ethical considerations, in economic science. A must read for anyone concerned with the effects of economic thinking upon day-to-day economic life, as well as the accountability and motivation of those who make policies based upon their conception of economic reality.

The Catholic Land Movement Papers

Here is a collection of essays by leaders of the Catholic Land Movement. Spearheaded by men such as Fr. Vincent McNabb, the movement was a practical embodiment of the salutary truth that economic life must be rooted in property ownership and agriculture. This book expresses that vision through the words of some of England’s wisest social commentators. If you’re not able to “flee to the fields,” someday your children may want to.

The major works of compadres G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc have been widely circulated in the past few decades among an expanding circle of Catholics seeking a more universal knowledge of our Christian perspective, history and faith. At this time Loreto Publications cannot carry these treasures of wisdom, which are voluminous (Belloc wrote about 150 books), however a good supply can be obtained from other Catholic publishers. What we have chosen to do is periodically promote certain of their productions which we feel are particularly timely and potentially formative. Outline of Sanity and The Free Press preeminently qualify as fare for any soldier whose enlistment in the Church militant is more than perfunctory. The Free Press is a new release from IHS Press. It was written in 1917, the same year Our Lady came to Fatima. The media’s manipulation of thought among the masses, which Belloc warned about back then, by the financial power elite (motivated by capitalist interest rather than truth) has grown exponentially over these last four score industrial and technological decades. Yet this eighty page essay is not a wailing sheet of moral nor intellectual despair. The mighty author was too much of a Catholic, too much a man of hope, to see nothing but gloom and darkness on the literary horizon. He saw the press as a most salient force on the battlefield of ideas — not only in 1917, but in any future time as well. Those ideas which are true, and therefore good, must win out in the end. The truth, by its very nature, is productive — be it public news (i.e., what is due to the social man) or commentary; whereas the lie (and all dissemblance of reality) is destructive. If there is an organ for truth, for justice, issuing regularly printed daily sheets, no matter how hampered by the enemy, influential thinkers will gravitate to it like a magnet. Its writers will be more eloquent, for they shall have a cause that is not enslaved to money and its pathetic and corrosive cancer of the soul commonly known as mediocrity. Belloc was absolutely confidant that there was more power in his weekly Eye Witness political journal reaching one reflective reader than in that of the Daily Telegraph or the Times reaching one thousand dullards. The reader should note that by the term Free Press the author is in no way championing the Masonic catchphrase (which is a deceptive abuse of the ideal of true "freedom" — a common ploy of all tyrannical tricksters), rather he intends the word to mean exactly what its definition implies. This book gives hope to all of us who are engaged in the apostolate of the written word. We can win. We will win! Ironically enough, though it may not appear evident — today’s orchestrated media bias notwithstanding — we are winning.

The Gauntlet, subtitled "A Challenge to the Myth of Progress," includes selections from Old Worlds for New (1917), Post-Industrialism (1922), Towards a Christian Sociology (1923), and Means and Ends (1932). This first-ever anthology of Penty’s works presents a compelling vision both of what’s wrong with the world and of what kind of socio-economic order would help to make it right. The writings in this volume provide a sampling of Penty’s thorough and persuasive critique of the myths that dominate modern economic and social thought. They also outline his intellectual and practical program for the restoration of such essentials in economic life as the dignity of labor, justice in pricing, equity in property distribution, quality in craftsmanship, preservation of rural culture, and, above all, the recognition of spiritual Truth as the foundation of all real economic order

IHS Press is pleased to present an Introduction to this anthology by Dr. Peter Chojnowski.

Dr. Chojnowski has degrees in Political Science and Philosophy from Christendom College, and a Masters degree and Doctorate in Philosophy from Fordham University. He specializes in the philosophy of St. Thomas and Catholic Social Thought. He currently teaches at Immaculate Conception Academy in Post Falls, Idaho, where he lives with his wife and five children.

“A clarion call to solve current societal ills... in light of the Faith[.]” —Anthony Cooney

A compact and compelling look at the usefulness of the medieval guild and the broader political theory underlying it for a solution to the age-old and still perplexing problem of the struggle between capital and labor and the economic tension between cooperation and competition. A clarion call to solve current societal ills, such as unemployment, absentee corporate ownership, and employee disenfranchisement, in light of the medieval Faith.

• Foreword by Dr. Roger McCain
• Preface by Anthony Cooney
• Publisher’s Introduction

Fr. Vincent P. McNabb, O.P. -106 pages Paperback
Brilliant essays on Distributism, Catholic family life, and going back to the land.
Foreword by Joseph Kelly
Introduction by Cicero Bruce

The anti-war position: not just for "radicals" anymore.

The editors of Neo-CONNED! have assembled an all-star lineup of thirty-one journalists, military officers, academics, theologians, and fair and balanced commentators each contributing a pillar of truth based upon the wisdom of Catholic ethical tradition and the prudence, realism, and common sense of authentic patriotism vis-a-vis the tragic and immoral 21st-century war against Iraq. The essays and interviews in Neo-CONNED! set forth in clear and persuasive terms the Catholic objection to the Invasion of Iraq, based upon the venerable just-war tradition and solid political analysis. They argue from Catholic doctrine and solid logic that God, the Church, and an Informed conscience take precedence over the government in determining both the justice of a war and a morally acceptable course of action for Christians who are called upon to support it.

"Conduct unbecoming": America’s dealings with Iraq

More than two years after the Iraqi people were "liberated" from their internationally recognized government by an unprovoked military invasion, Iraq remains embroiled in a deadly guerrilla war. Its political life Is a caldron of hatred. Neo-CONNED! Again examines how the Anglo-American war against Iraq results from evil intent, and is a crime of the first order. It uncovers the hypocrisy and lawlessness of Anglo-American conduct in terms of the war itself and the ever-expanding military response to September 11 known as the "war on terror." On account of America's aggression in the Middle East, world sympathy on the morrow of the 9/11 attacks has turned into disgust and hostility. With contributors among the very best in their respective fields – journalism, political philosophy, military strategy and intelligence, international law and more – Neo-CONNED! Again tackles the "war on terror" and its relation to the conflict in Iraq with a candor and precision not found anywhere else.

"Conduct unbecoming": America’s dealings with Iraq

More than two years after the Iraqi people were "liberated" from their internationally recognized government by an unprovoked military invasion, Iraq remains embroiled in a deadly guerrilla war. Its political life Is a caldron of hatred. Neo-CONNED! Again examines how the Anglo-American war against Iraq results from evil intent, and is a crime of the first order. It uncovers the hypocrisy and lawlessness of Anglo-American conduct in terms of the war itself and the ever-expanding military response to September 11 known as the "war on terror." On account of America's aggression in the Middle East, world sympathy on the morrow of the 9/11 attacks has turned into disgust and hostility. With contributors among the very best in their respective fields – journalism, political philosophy, military strategy and intelligence, international law and more – Neo-CONNED! Again tackles the "war on terror" and its relation to the conflict in Iraq with a candor and precision not found anywhere else.