Quadragesimo Anno is an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, issued 15 May1931, 40 years after Rerum Novarum (thus the name, Latin for 'the fortieth year'). Written as a response to the Great Depression, it calls for the establishment of a social order based on the principle of subsidiarity. Some of its features share the same economic anti-capitalist, anti-communist analysis as fascism, including the idea of representation by vocation and social position, rather than simple democracy.
External links
text of Quadragesimo Anno (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno_en.html)
Summary of Quadragesimo Anno, from US Catholic (http://www.uscatholic.org/cstline/tline.html)
Summary of Quadragesimo Anno, from OSJSPM (http://www.osjspm.org/cst/doclist.htm)
In QuadragesimoAnno, Pope Pius is hopeful that class warfare "when it abstains from enmities and mutual hatred" will be converted into an honest discussion of differences.
QuadragesimoAnno noted that "the proper ordering of economic affairs cannot be left to free competition alone.
In QuadragesimoAnno, Pope Pius noted to the twin evils to be avoided: the "individualism" which denies the social aspect of ownership and the "collectivism" which denies the private aspect.
Pius's response in QuadragesimoAnno was to accept several elements in the Marxist critique of capitalism.
He agreed with Lenin that "free enterprise" must evolve into monopoly capitalism, "an international imperialism whose country is where profit is," a system not able to curb or control itself or to direct economic life, and in consequence ultimately self-destructive.
An unhappy carry-over from the mindset of Pius IX was reasserted in QuadragesimoAnno, the notion of a fixed social order determined by God and not to be challenged by humans.
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