It’s not secret around here that I am a big fan of the kind of authentic corporatism espoused by Pope Pius XI in his important encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. An important implication of the harmonious approach to the common good is that the various corporate entities are good in their own ends, including unions, guilds, voluntary associations, and yes, corporations. We need to acknowledge that the corporation is a core component of a just social order. For sure, we can criticize corporations when they engage in wrongdoing, or for violating subsidiary principles, but criticizing the nature of the corporation itself is not well grounded in Catholic principles.
In the aftermath of Pius XI’s encyclical, and before Hitler and Mussolini forever tarnished the noble concept of corporatism, a number of theologians teased out some of its implications. One of them, Fr. Greyn Spahn O.P, in his doctoral dissertation at Freiburg university, Geist in Welt, in 1939 argued that the modern corporation could even be conceived in Trinitarian terms. Spahn’s writings are difficult to follow, and his knowledge of the corporation is rooted in early twentieth century Prussian norms, with their peculiar legal structure. Nonetheless, it is clear that Spahn is arguing that the relationship between what be dubbed the “founding owner”, the CEO, and the shareholders are bonded together in terms that mirror the inner life of the Trinity. Just as the founding owner “begets” the CEO, and the CEO is the voice of the company in the world, so the relationship between the founder and the CEO is eternally mediated by the shareholders. Thus each person is defined only in the relation to the other, and together the corporation acts in harmonious unity. We need to remember that the next time we are over zealous in our critcism of corporations.
Interesting, Spahn invokes the fifteenth century cardinal Immanent Florid who wrote in such terms about the budding Florentine commercial bodies. Unfortunately, Florid was burned at the stake in 1496 by Savonarola, and his works were destroyed.
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