Property and the Universal Destination of Goods
“God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity” (Compendium, no. 171). This is the universal destination of goods, which the Church calls “the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine” (Compendium, no. 172).
The Church defends private property as “an extension of human freedom” (Compendium, no. 176), and she has also “never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable”: it “is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone” (Compendium, no. 177). Housing, land, water, medicine, patents and data all fall under this principle. The pieces below weigh ownership against the purpose goods were given for.
Quotations are from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004), cited by paragraph number.
From The Catholic Citizen
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