Catholic View of the Economy: Excerpts from Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler's "The Labor Question and Christianity" (1864)

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The fourth kind of aid that Christianity offers toward improving the material situation of the working class lies in the social forces themselves.

[ . . . ]

What we have in mind here, first of all, is the enterprise of the craftsmen's association, which came into being a number of years ago, and which is trying to reunify the class of craftsmen into a coherent cooperative. The idea that forms the basis for this attempt is certainly a deeply justifiable one that will offer a solution. We wish with all our hearts that the attempt now being made will produce results. If the governments – not in the service of the liberal party, from whom I expect nothing good in any area, but rather acting independently and with expertise – were to provide the craftsmen's class with an order in which it could again move toward the independence it needs and toward a vigorous cooperative, then we would regard this as a supremely far-reaching and beneficial measure whose results could hardly be determined in advance. It almost seems that we would have to dispense, once and for all, with [counting on] today's governments [to engage in any kind of] constructive activity. But this makes it even more important for all creative and productive Christian forces to support, as much as they can, the effort to restore social standing to the rank of the craftsmen's class.

The second enterprise we need to mention at this juncture are the associations of journeymen. They have chiefly arisen in Catholic regions, so we have every right to call them a Catholic contribution to the solution of the labor question. Even their results so far have surpassed all expectations, and they also show us what can become of these journeymen's associations when their entire development is brought to a full conclusion. God availed himself of a journeyman in order to take on this work, and after he raised him to the rank of the priests, he made the Reverend Mr. Kolping, this old journeyman, into a true father of this class of journeymen. May God henceforth use him as an instrument for solidifying this work. This will happen more and more if the cooperative principle, supported by the spirit of Christianity, develops ever more in these associations and makes All of them into living members of one body.