John Paul II Was a Libertarian!

Samuel Gregg doesn't make this actual claim but he wants to appropriate John Paul II for liberalism.

How John Paul II reminded us that liberty and truth are inseparable – Acton Institute PowerBlog

⁦@DrSamuelGregg⁩ for the internet win of the day! https://t.co/ARyJe49lBD

— Bradley J. Birzer (@bradleybirzer) May 21, 2020

Centesimus Annus is often praised—rightly, in my view—for being the modern social encyclical most attentive to economics as a social science. This owed much to John Paul II’s willingness to meet and have serious discussions with prominent economists who themselves occupied a variety of positions on the economic policy spectrum while the encyclical was being drafted.

Economics is a practical science; academics need to take shortcuts and make assumptions about human behavior in order to have predictive models because the system with which they deal is too big.