‘Bishops and Economics’

I wish to answer the three writers who criticized some of the ideas of the Conference of Catholic Bishops on the U.S. economy.

I want to state that though two writers call themselves Catholic, they have neither understood the Catholic bishops, nor do they know the meaning of Christianity.

The bishops don’t want to abolish the system of free enterprise, but they only want to mitigate its profit motive--a motive that is essentially against Christianity whose ethos is the ethos of love.

This is obvious in the case of the Gospel. The spirit of the Gospel is the loving spirit that gives, asks nothing in return, and helps others. The spirit of the Gospel is against the spirit of extreme calculation, extreme profit or exploitation. Even the sinner who possesses a seed of generosity is better than a calculating spirit: the Publican is better than the Pharisee.

The Catholic bishops are only reiterating the Christian principle or spirit that is not indifferent to generosity or love: they firmly believe that those who close their heart to love also close their heart to grace.

ANGELO A. DeGENNARO

Los Angeles