Top photo caption:A person pumps their gasoline at a gas station in Atlanta March 20, 2026. OSV News photo/Alyssa Pointer, Reuters
By Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News
OSV News – Most Americans are familiar with the phrase “with liberty and justice for all” as the concluding line of the Pledge of Allegiance.
But what, specifically, about economic justice for all – what should that look like?
On Nov. 13, 1986, the U.S. Catholic bishops, as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (a predecessor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), proposed their own answer, voting to adopt “Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy.”
As its 40th anniversary approaches, the question remains relevant – especially since most of the change the bishops’ pastoral letter urged has not come to pass and surveys show economic and cost-of-living struggles dominate Americans’ concerns.
“That’s one of the really heartbreaking things,” reflected Jesuit Brother Ken Homan, a board member of the Catholic Labor Network, which is offering an “Economic Justice for All” study series – and assistant professor of history at Saint Louis University.
“It talks about the increasing gap between the rich and the poor; the inaccessibility of housing; the accessibility of healthcare,” he explained. “Well, the gap between rich and poor has increased even more since then and the discrepancy between the pay of a CEO and the pay of a floor worker has become astronomical.”
What do current economic statistics say about the U.S. bishops’ concerns from the mid-80s?
In January 2026, it was reported wealth inequality in the U.S. hit its widest gap in more than three decades, with the top 1% of households owning 31.7% of all U.S. wealth as of the third quarter of 2025 – the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989.
During February 2026, the National Association of Home Builders stated, “In 39 states and the District of Columbia, more than 65% of households are unable to afford the median-priced new home, indicating a significant disconnect between higher new home prices, elevated mortgage rates, and stagnant household incomes.”
As of June 2026, the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America indicated U.S. adults’ ability to afford healthcare stood at a five-year low; an estimated 2.8 million more Americans reported an inability to afford healthcare in 2025 compared with 2024. Also in 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated 8.3% of Americans of all ages (28 million people) did not have health insurance.
In September 2026, the D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute – which dubs itself “the working people’s think tank” – noted, “In 2025, CEOs were paid 325 times as much as a typical worker – in contrast to 1965, when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.” It said that “from 1978–2025, top CEO compensation shot up 1,316%, compared with a 28% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.”
For Brother Homan, these figures collectively represent a call to renewal.
“What have we been doing this whole time?” asked Brother Homan. “It really should break our hearts and spur us to action, to say we haven’t followed through on this. There are demands we need to pursue; that we need to engage.”
Father Robert Sirico, co-founder and president emeritus of the Acton Institute – a think-tank with Michigan and Rome offices that promotes “a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles” – told OSV News he was “surprised that anybody is commemorating” the anniversary of “Economic Justice for All.”
“I work in this field, and I don’t hear people reference it,” said Father Sirico. “It’s just not a known document … I’m weekly in conversations or seminars talking about all these issues, and Church social teaching – and I can’t remember the last time it was raised.”
So should the U.S. bishops issue a new document concerned with the economy?
“I wouldn’t use ‘Economic Justice for All’ as a point of reference to update,” Father Sirico suggested. “I think one of the great updatings, if you want to call it that, was ‘Centesimus Annus.'”
“Centesimus Annus” is St. John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical marking the 100th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum,” an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 widely regarded as a cornerstone of Catholic social doctrine.
“I think ‘Centesimus Annus’ put the social teaching on a much deeper and more profound level of understanding. It gave us more to talk about. I think the themes ‘Economic Justice for All’ raised are good themes – but I think they’ve been made more profound,” he said.
“Economic Justice for All” emphasized multiple principles, including that the economy and work exist for the human person; economic life is inherently moral (versus purely financial); the dignity of the poor is the key measure of economic justice; and everyone has a right to the basic necessities of life.
Additionally, people should have opportunities to participate in economic life; economic freedom must serve the common good; wealth and economic power carry responsibilities, including to creation and future generations; and the global economy must be governed by solidarity and justice.
“The document is 40 years old – it was written at a time when the bishop’s conference was very different,” Anthony Annett, an economist and author of “Cathnomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy,” told OSV News.
But Annett felt the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in recent years shifted its emphasis to focusing on other moral concerns in a way that tended, in his view, “to downplay any of the traditional Catholic social teaching as it relates to the economy.”
Annett indicated this has consequences for the Church’s credible witness.
“For example, in 2008-2009 – the biggest global financial crisis since the Great Depression – they weren’t even able to capably respond to that,” he said.
Annett added he doesn’t think “Economic Justice for All” could be created now.
“All these issues are crucial – but nobody’s really talking about them,” he said. “I see little space for an authentic Catholic voice on economics.”
Jesuit Father Thomas Massaro, a professor of moral theology at Fordham University, reflected “a lot has changed. The bishops have not had long documents like this since the 80s.”
In 1996 (with a 2026 update), the USCCB issued “A Catholic Framework for Economic Life,” a statement of 10 principles drawn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, papal encyclicals, and “Economic Justice for All.”
In September 2026, the USCCB noted, “Unfortunately, the principles of economic justice articulated by the bishops in 1986 remain as relevant and necessary today amid persistent poverty, growing inequality, revolutionary technological changes, and the marginalization of many people and communities.”
In response, the USCCB added, “Our faith calls us to evaluate the economy, including our role in it through the lens of human dignity, the common good, the family, creation, and especially the poor and vulnerable.”
Father Massaro said he welcomed the recent statements the U.S. bishops have issued on Catholic social doctrine. But he added that “as a theologian with an interest in economics, I would just like to see a little bringing up-to-date.”
While suggesting that “Economic Justice for All” provides “a lot of vision,” reflecting on the current economy, he also sees a case for proactivity.
“Put me down as being in favor of the renewal of this document in some way, a new document, or a new version of it,” Father Massaro said. “Maybe we’re overdue to have our bishops lead the Catholic populace into further moral reflection.”
Kimberley Heatherington is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Virginia.
NOTES: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ resources on “Economic Justice for All” can be found here: https://www.usccb.org/resources/economic-justice-all-summary-resource
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