A market economy enjoys real legitimacy if and only if
it is set in the context of a vibrant moral culture that forms its people in
the virtues of fairness, justice, respect for the integrity of the other, and
religion. Indeed, what good are contracts—fundamental to the functioning of a
market economy—if people are indifferent to justice? What good is private
property if people don’t see that stealing is wicked? Won’t wealth destroy the
rich man who doesn’t appreciate the value of generosity or fails to develop
sensitivity to the suffering of the poor? Won’t the drive for profit lead to
the destruction of nature unless people realize that the earth is a gift of a
gracious God and is meant to be enjoyed by all? This is precisely why the moral
relativism and indifferentism that holds sway in many parts of the West—fostered
by the breakdown of the family and the attenuating of religious practice—poses such
a threat to the economy.
--Bishop Robert Barron, Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism
