ABSTRACT
The principle of self-reliance, both for persons and for nations, begins to become ever more prominent in Catholic social thought. To enter the world of Pope John XXIII is, for persons educated by liberal institutions, a tremendous joy. The two great contributions to Catholic social thought made by John XXIII are his encyclicals Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris. Paul VI, like John XXIII, holds the dignity of the individual human person to be the fundamental criterion of the good society. Paul VI seems to assume that "liberalism" means only and solely a radical individualism, materialism, and Darwinian struggle. Paul VI's attitude toward liberalism, which he mentions explicitly or implicitly several times, remains ambivalent. Paul VI's flirtation with Marxist analysis and his disdain for the ideology of liberalism have unleashed a mischievous dualism in the Catholic world. Liberal institutions have helped to propel it in meteoric fashion.
