Happy Feast Day of the Kingship of Christ — Immortale Dei (Encyclical on the Christian Constitution of States), Pope Leo XIII: “First and foremost, it is the duty of all Catholics worthy of the name ……. to endeavour to bring back all civil society to the pattern and form of Christianity which We have described.”
Catholic author Hilaire Belloc reflects on his time in parliament
Have you read his book ‘The Party System’ yet?
In Thomistic terms usury is defined as the double sale of an object that is consumed in its use. Belloc explains it in practical terms.
“The profound thing which Cardinal Manning said to me was this: ‘all human conflict is ultimately theological’…….. He never admitted the possibility of compromise between Catholic and non-Catholic society. He perceived the necessary conflict, and gloried in it.”
Hilaire Belloc’s classic introduction to the basics of economic theory, ‘Economics for Helen,’ offers a constructive approach to economic education by defining terms and introducing key concepts without using special jargon and complex theories.
The fundamental questions about why the economy fluctuates and how small farmers, small business people, families, consumers, and innovators are affected by these fluctuations are considered.
Serious Catholic alternatives to modern economic theories are explained, with attention to the realities that have been largely unchanged through the last century.
The remaining stock of this book is very slightly damaged due to damp and therefore we are offering copies at the bargain price of £6.00 each including postage.
Please send a cheque or postal order, payable to ‘The Saint George Educational Trust’, to: SGET, 225 Andover House, George Yard, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1PB.
Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton’s younger brother, Cecil, examine what they term ‘The Party System’ with a Catholic eye and find it fundamentally lacking.
Pertinent to America, Britain, and other Western democracies, this book explains that what people believe happens in national assemblies and parliaments is radically different from the reality.
Instead of being places where debate is intense, passionate, and aimed at the national interest, the fact is most members of these institutions act on behalf of powerful, unelected interests. They know, implicitly, who really runs the country — and their only real task is to decide if they want to try and rock the boat (thereby risking their salary, their reputation, their future), or stay silent for fear or favour.
The book demonstrates beyond any doubt that the very nature of the system is hostile to democracy as laypeople understand it.
The remaining stock of this book is very slightly damaged due to damp and therefore we are offering copies at the bargain price of £6.00 each including postage.
Please send a cheque or postal order, payable to ‘The Saint George Educational Trust’, to: SGET, 225 Andover House, George Yard, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1PB.
– Hilaire Belloc
“Usury does not mean high interest. It means any interest, however low, demanded for an unproductive loan.
It is not only immoral but it is ultimately destructive of society. It has only been the rule of our commerce to take usury since the breakup of Europe following on the Reformation.
Usury will destroy our society, but meanwhile there is no escape from it. We are coming near the end of its maleficent action, not through awaking to its evils but because it is reaching the end of its resources.
The modern world is organized on the principle that money of its nature breeds money. A sum of money lent has, according to our present scheme, a natural right to interest.
In this essay Hilaire Belloc shows that principle is false in economics as in morals. It ruined Rome, and it is bringing us to our end.”
Belloc’s essay on usury, a sinful practice thoroughly condemned by the Church, is available from SGET for £5.00 including p&p.
Cheques/postal orders payable to ‘The Saint George Educational Trust’.
Send payment to:
SGET, 225 Andover House, George Yard, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1PB.
Capitalism had arisen through the misuse and exaggeration of certain rights, notably the right of property — the basis of economic freedom — and the right of contract, which is one of the main functions of economic freedom. Therefore, even under Capitalism, so long as the old principles were remembered it was possible to recall the principles whereby Society had once been sane and well ordered. But as a Godless greed pursued its career from excess to excess, it provoked a sort of twin hostile brother, equally Godless, born in the same atmosphere of utter disregard for the foundational virtues of humility and charity. This hostile twin brother of Capitalism was destined to be called Communism……..
– Hilaire Belloc
