The Nation - News from June 16, 1985

A faction of Catholic bishops criticized the “inherent weaknesses” of capitalism, blaming capitalism for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in many Third World countries. Some at the bishops’ annual meeting at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., asked for the addition of a treatise on capitalism in the second draft of the bishops’ Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. The second draft is due out in September for discussion at the bishops’ November meeting in Washington. The pastoral, already four years in the making, probably will not be finally approved until November, 1986.