Tony Magliano (CR, March 24) cherry-picks the social doctrine of the church to suit his political ideology. Taking to task only the Tea Party and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for its budget cuts, he reserves for himself the definition of fairness with respect to the “universal destination of goods.” He uses disparity of wealth as a singular proof of unfairness, failing to note that with his definition we might even count the Catholic Church as seriously flawed in its practice of what it preaches.
According to the Compendium of the social doctrine of the church, the “Universal destination and utilization of goods do not mean that everything is at the disposal of each person or of all people, or that the same object may be useful or belong to each person or all people.”
While Magliano is entitled to his opinion, I wonder why The Catholic Review considers his skewed presentations on social justice issues worth the space it gives him.