"Socialism isn't sharing wealth, it's the forced sharing of wealth."

Fr. Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, takes free enterprise seriously. He thinks you should too.


Is it important for Christians to take the poor seriously?

We are obligated to take care of the poor.

You could say that it was Christianity that institutionalized charity.

The church institutionalized organized giving internationally, because we saw Christ in the poor.

The question should not be, "Must we do it?", but "How should we do it?"

How do we best help?

Most of us come in touch with the poor.

We've replaced the notion of compassion, which means to suffer with someone, and replaced it with, "To give to."

I think Paul said sometimes you have to get a man to work, before you can help him.

The best system for everyone, including the poor, is free enterprise.

Socialism isn't sharing wealth, it's the forced sharing of wealth.

You basically drain all of the morality out of the action.

Arthur Brooks has written a very good book documenting who gives to the poor....and it's conservatives.

Why is that not obvious? Why does that not make it into the media?

I think the reason it doesn't get into the media is because the media itself is liberal.

And conservatives are, well, conservative. They don't talk a lot about it.

The liberals talk a lot about it.

I'd love to allow you to give us a quick commercial about how we can learn from the Acton Institute.

Thanks for the opportunity. First, go to our website.

It's a veritable library on theology, on economics.

God did not redeem the world by simply speaking a word.

This is why Christians throughout the ages have been concerned with this world.

What the Acton institute does is...see what the best ways of helping the poor are.

It's not just having...a heart for the poor. It's having a head for the poor.