As the Roman Church criticized capitalism, so for a very long period did it condemn liberalism, democracy, and even religious liberty as practiced in North America. Since Vatican II, the Church has made considerable doctrinal progress in its official appraisal of religious liberty, democratic institutions, and certain cardinal liberal values like tolerance and due process. There is no reason to suppose that, once it attempts to understand contemporary democratic-capitalist economics, it will not make analogous progress in its economic doctrine. No one can deny that the Roman Catholic Church, like the member churches of the World Council of Churches, has been less highly developed in economic doctrine than in any other major area of its life. The theology of economics is not yet sufficiently substantive to rank even as dismal. On what grounds, then, are we to look to “the Canadian churches” for sudden bursts of economic intelligence?
The Wealth of Nations
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