Catholic social teaching and Occupy Wall Street

Does Catholic social teaching support Occupy Wall Street? Columnist Tony Magliano says "yes" in this column distributed by Catholic News Service:

The Catholic social teaching principle known as “the universal destination of the earth’s goods” insists that all people deserve a fair share of creation and the goods of humankind, and certainly to the point of having each basic need met entirely.

Pope Paul VI taught that God intends for everyone to adequately share in the goods of the earth.

American society’s failure to fulfill this ethical principle is a moral indictment against most of Washington’s politicians, corporate America and liberal capitalism, which highly favors those with wealth and power at the painful expense of those with little or none.

Blessed John Paul said that the human inadequacies of capitalism are far from disappearing. So much of America’s political and economic system is unjust. And yet, for the most part, Catholics are silent.

Silence supports the rich and powerful, never the poor and weak.

But Catholic social teaching calls us to speak up for the poor and weak.

So let us raise our voices together with our courageous brothers and sisters of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Demand that the do-little U.S. Congress:

– Significantly raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
– Drastically cut military spending; stop the wars.
– Create millions of public service jobs.
– Give small businesses (especially green energy companies) job-producing financial assistance.
– Extend the efficiency of Medicare to everyone.
– Pass strong anti-sweatshop legislation.
– Greatly increase poverty-focused assistance to the nation’s and world’s poor!

The entire column is here.