The Biggest American Catholic Story of the Week

Author

Daniel Shanahan
June 18, 2024

What is the biggest Catholic story in the United States in the past week? It wasn't the appointment of a new bishop, it wasn't a new pronouncement from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), it wasn't an announcment of a papal visit, it wasn't a new school, hospital or monastery, and thankfully, it wasn't a story of inappropriate behavior by a religious or cleric.

No, the biggest story for United States Catholics this past week is the shareholders of Tesla, the car company, gave its one-time investor, past board member, and now part-time CEO a $46,000,000,000 (billion) pay package. It's not as though the part-time CEO, Elon Musk needs the money. According to Forbes, his net worth at the time of this writing is $212.8 billion.

Nobody really comprehends what $212.8 billion is, much less, $257.8 billion.

The pay package is not cash. The package comes in the form of Tesla stock and he must retain the stock for at least 5 years. Nor is it really $46 billion. The New York Times reports that the value rose to $48 billion at the end of last Thursday (June 13 2024). And of course, a stock can lose value, so some may argue that Musk is taking a risk.

Why is this a Catholic story? Elon Musk isn't Catholic. Nor are any of the Tesla board of directors. This story is Catholic because of the almost forgotten and conveniently ignored 1986 pastoral letter by the USCCB titled Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. The US Catholic bishops wrote that pastoral letter:

Economic life raises important social and moral questions for each of us and for society as a whole. Like family life, economic life is one of the chief areas where we live out our faith, love our neighbor, confront temptation, fulfill God's creative design, and achieve our holiness.

Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, paragraph 6 page vi

Wealth distribution is steadily increasing in the US, with the top 10% of Americans owning $95,000,000,000,000 (trillion). That is more than the lower 90% combined; as in all together; as in 90% of Americans pooled absolutely all their money together and still couldn't buy a bigger yacht than team Top Ten Percent. As Woody Boyd from Cheers once said to his fiancé, Kelly, "Imagine all the money in the world. That's how much I don't have." (Quoted from memory).

The problem is not giving $46,000,000,000 to one person. The problem is the gross discrepancy between one person's pay package and a society's struggle to reduce poverty. This is a moral failing. As Matthew Desmond writes in Poverty, by America: "America’s poverty is not for lack of resources. We lack something else."

Again, the US Catholic Bishops of 1986:

Catholic social teaching does not require absolute equality in the distribution of income and wealth... However, unequal distribution should be evaluated in terms of several moral principles we have enunciated: the priority of meeting the basic needs of the poor and the importance of increasing the level of participation by all members of society in the economic life of the nation. These norms establish a strong presumption against extreme inequality of income and wealth as long as there are poor, hungry, and homeless people in our midst. They also suggest that extreme inequalities are detrimental to the development of social solidarity and community. In view of these norms we find the disparities of income and wealth in the United States to be unacceptable. Justice requires that all members of our society work for economic, political, and social reforms that will decrease these inequities.

Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, paragraph 185 page 42