Since today is the day of Pope Paul VI’s beatification, I thought I might share a quote from his oft-neglected Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, issued in honor of the 80th anniversary of Leo XIII’s great encyclical Rerum Novarum.
We are witnessing a renewal of liberal ideology. This current asserts itself in the name of economic efficiency[.] . . . But do not Christians who take this path tend to idealize liberalism in their turn, making it a proclamation in favor of freedom? They would like a new model, more adapted to present day conditions, while easily forgetting that the very root of philosophical liberalism is an erroneous affirmation of the autonomy of the individual in his activity, his motivation and the exercise of his liberty.
