Building Wealth: What’s Your Mindset?

Reconciling financial success with a Catholic money mindset.

In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us:

"Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end…Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty."

Desiring wealth and a comfortable lifestyle aren’t evil, but they need to be kept in the right context.

Here’s what to keep in mind to stop yourself from chasing the dollar for its own sake.

Profit as a means, not an end

According to Pope Leo XIII, private ownership is an “absolutely necessary natural right of man” (Rerum Novarum).

Money helps you own things. But ultimately, everything you own is a gift from God. It belongs to Him.

When God fades to the wayside in your mind, money can easily become an idol you worship. You can forget that it’s meant to be used as a tool for greater purposes.

What’s that purpose? Let’s start by defining what wealth is.

Charles Clark, a Professor of Economics at St. John’s University, states that according to Catholic social thought, wealth is “assets that promote human development.”

Interesting. According to this line of thought, wealth isn’t just about serving your own needs. It should benefit others too.

Pope Francis agrees. Here’s what he says in Evangelium Gaudii:

“Serve the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.”

Who is “all”?

There are two main groups to keep in mind when considering wealth: your family and those in need.

Does your family have what they need? This doesn’t mean the money your family has fulfills every material desire.

Here’s where God calls us to grow in the virtue of generosity. Why? Because we have a responsibility to serve the poor and the marginalized.

“The needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich” - St. John Paul II, Sept. 14, 1984 Address

Jesus praises the widow who “out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living” (Mark 12:44).

Keep in mind that many dioceses recommend that Catholics tithe 10% of yearly income, often broken down with 5% going to your parish and 5% to other charities.

Tithing and serving the poor isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to keep us reliant on God and mindful of those who are less fortunate than us.

The bottom line?

Wealth isn’t bad. However, we encourage you to reflect on your mindset surrounding wealth and orient yourself toward the overall purpose of the common good.

Consider why you want to build wealth. Is it to provide for your family and those in need around you? Or is it to possess material things that will fade?

Here are a few practical ways to better use the wealth you do have:

✔️Invest in businesses that are committed to Catholic causes or that are in line with the Church.

✔️Donate to charitable missions that serve God’s children.

✔️Create jobs and opportunities so others can enjoy their natural right of private ownership.

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