Is it time for a Catholic economy? Venture prepares a faith-based response for economic downfall

Even before pandemic-fighting restrictions threw Canada’s economy into turmoil, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops voiced concerns about the high level of poverty in the country.

The bishops’ Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace said in a 2019 special report on housing affordability that Canada’s “economic environment of precarious or part-time employment ... perpetuates poverty.”

Pandemic-fuelled government debt, employment dislocation, soaring fuel and food costs, and sky-high house prices have made the economic outlook only more precarious, especially for those already in need.

The prospects may be worse yet for Catholic-owned and -operated businesses, says Langley business consultant Henry Kutarna, a member of Holy Family Parish in Vancouver. Kutarna said in an interview that mounting anti-Catholic prejudice, combined with government regulations that collide with Catholic values, are making it increasingly difficult for Catholic businesses to operate in the general economy.

In response, Kutarna, a 68-year-old financial consultant, investor, and founder of the Catholic CEO, has launched a bold and unconventional venture he calls the Catholic Economy Project. 

Its goal is to create an alliance of Catholics and Catholic businesses that, using parish-level connections and small businesses, will build each other up. Kutarna describes it as a Catholic economy within the larger economy.

His vision is for Catholics to become “more self-sufficient, maybe start home-based businesses, family business,” which could lead not only to greater Catholic prosperity, but also to greater Catholic influence on the culture.

In a promotional declaration Kutarna said Catholic business operators will be able “to attain the eternal joys of heaven and build the kingdom of God through commerce.” In short, “We buy from each other. We sell to each other. We advise each other. We invest in each others’ business. We create a powerful economic force where we influence the culture and help others get to heaven.”

In the long term, the project will also help participants be better positioned to withstand any widespread economic catastrophe that may befall the country. “So, if civilization collapses, we would [not be] scrambling around trying to find solutions or invent solutions,” he said. “They would already have thought about it and made some preparations so each family, for example, could survive, or could know what specialty they would have [for] a family business.”

Kutarna said the concept is a practical response to a real possibility, not a “preppers” or “survivalist” fantasy. “When the economy collapses, and there’s a complete breakdown of things, and people lose their jobs and the currency loses its value, there would be people already building home-based or small businesses, and they would then be able to create income for themselves (to) keep on buying and selling,” he said.

Kutarna’s vision of a Catholic economy within the larger economy gives rise to practical concerns that it could have a difficult time succeeding. One of Canada’s leading free-market economists, Jason Clemens, a member of St. Clare of Assisi Parish, said in an interview that by limiting to other Catholics those with whom project participants would do business, they could dooming themselves to either higher costs or lower quality.

Economic studies have clearly shown “that there is a cost to discriminate,” Clemens said. “So, the idea that you can get the same value, the same quality, the same selection and variety of goods and services if you, a priori, discriminate, is incorrect. In other words, people, who make a decision that they are going to trade only with other Catholics are paying a price. Either the goods and services are going to have higher costs, or they’re going to be of lower quality, and they’re going to have less selection ...”

The project also turns its back on a moral good associated with free markets, Clemens said. “Markets force us to interact with people that we may not otherwise interact with,” he said. “And that’s how we actually gain knowledge because, by interacting with people with different values, different religions, and different cultures, we learn from one another.”

If the Catholic Economy Project is saying that “‘we largely want to interact with people who are similar to us.’ ... The implication is you’re not going to interact with Muslims or Protestants or atheists – regardless of their morality and whether they are good people or not – simply because they are not Catholic.”

Clemens also believes that participants of a Catholic-only economy would be less able to withstand an economic meltdown. “Anyone doing what they advocate will be poorer than they otherwise would be,” he said. “And it seems to me that both the idea of resilience and preparedness is premised on what resources you have available. And the [discriminatory] policy being promoted will inevitably make those who pursue it poorer.”

In response to Clemens’ critique, Kutarna said Catholic-to-Catholic economic transactions would be only one aspect of the project. “The Catholic economy project is not dictating that Catholics ONLY do business with other Catholics,” he said in an email. “We have not said this. Catholic businesses will do business with everyone.”

He sees the effect of the project as “a more-free economy by facilitating voluntary exchange between Catholics that want to do business together but are unable to find each other. Catholics who want to do business with other Catholics will be able to do so. Catholic business will compete as usual in the marketplace.”

The project’s primary goal is also not one of financial gain. “Rather, its goal as an end is nothing short of the economy of salvation, focused on saving souls by helping us all rightly order business and commerce,” he said. “Catholic businesses will in fact support the pursuit of virtue.”

The idea for the project emerged from a forum in January dealing with “people who’ve lost their jobs for conscience reasons.” The forum was entitled “Discerning the Sign of the Times - A Catholic Response for the Changing Economy.”

“We then started to see that there’s a broader picture,” Kutarna said. “If we had a Catholic economy it would mean that we would buy from each other, and sell to each other, buy as a group, invest in each others’ business, create things at the parish level that would support, give ideas or mentoring, or support the people who are starting businesses in parishes. Every parish has people that are expert in business, so why can’t we help each other that way?”

More than 200 business operators have signed up for the project’s platform, and about 50 of those upgraded to a premium section called “Alpha Platoon.” Forty-one of those 50 participated in the project’s first “summit” on May 3. 

Catholic podcaster Brian Holdsworth of Alberta opened the event, and Joey Ndu, from The Catholic CEO team and owner of Ndu Services in Texas, facilitated the meeting. Four simultaneous breakout rooms were entitled Catholics and Money, What is a Catholic Business?, Financing Catholic Businesses, and Transitioning to a Catholic Business.

“The discussions were wide ranging and thoughtful,” Kutarna said. “People are really serious about working towards a Catholic Economy.”

For more details visit thecatholiceconomy.com.