Clean water, air and adequate housing are not enough. We must also strive for those other essential resources: “education, credit, insurance and markets.” All of these things are part of a truly integral human development.
One of the enduring lessons from the most recent Papal Encyclical, Laudato Si (Praise Be to You), is the simple notion that the “natural environment is a collective good.” Although simple, this profound concept has broad ramifications and is key to understanding how an encyclical about the environment is related to economic justice.
The accountability to the social function of property is referred to in Laudato Si as the “social mortgage.” Just as an economist understands how a conventional mortgage obligates a homeowner to repay a lender who made ownership possible, a theologian understands how property owners (individuals, corporations, governments or government instrumentalities) have a debt to God. This “social mortgage” obligates us to give back to the community so that those with no private property holdings have access to basic resources and services that helped make possible the personal development of that property owner.
To read more: http://www.catholicstand.com/laudato-si-papal-economics-and-the-social-mortgage/
