YOUCAT Question n. 427 – Part II. Why is there no absolute right to private property?
(Youcat
answer) There is no absolute but only a relative right to private property
because God created the earth and its goods for all mankind.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 2404)
"In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately
owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense
that they can benefit others as well as himself" (GS 69 § 1). The
ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the
task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of
all his family.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) Before parts of created reality can “belong”
to individuals, because they have been obtained legally, inherited, or received
as gifts, these owners must know that there is no property without social
obligation. At the same time, the Church contradicts those who conclude from
the social obligation associated with property that there should be no private
property and that everything should belong to everybody, or to the State. The
private owner who manages, tends, and increases a plot of land in keeping with
the Creator’s plan and divides the proceeds in such a way that each person gets
what is his due is by all means acting according to the divine commission for
creation.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 2405)
Goods of production - material or immaterial - such as land, factories,
practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways
that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and
consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for
guests, for the sick and the poor. (CCC 2406) Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the
legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good
(Cf. GS 71 § 4; SRS 42; CA 40; 48).
(The next question is: What is theft, and what falls under the Seventh
Commandment?)
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