“Who can own a tree? Who can own a rock?” This timeless bit of wisdom from the first VHS tape I owned, the 1987 classic Ernest Goes to Camp, has been lodged in my neurons for decades. Like the movie’s clownishly evil developers who are bent on demolishing Kamp Kikakee, many of us may be operating with overly simplistic ideas about ownership.
It is easy to think of ownership simply as a legal right. Assuring security in ownership, through punishing theft, protecting property rights, etc., is fundamental to society as we know it. In conflict zones and other places where such protections are absent, the ability to build a better life is strained. Within its moral sense, however, the right to ownership is more complex.
In the Catholic moral tradition, there is no such thing as a right isolated from a larger purpose. Rights follow a simple pattern: We protect this (a right) to ensure the freedom to do that (an obligation).
In Catholic social teaching, this pattern holds for rights to many kinds of private property, from homes and wages to creative work and intangible assets. The right to secure ownership is always premised on the idea that this security is necessary for fulfilling religious, moral, and social obligations.
Parallel to this theory of rights, our tradition also asserts that we are not the ultimate authors of our own lives. We are neither responsible for our own existence nor do we alone determine the moral purpose of our lives.
If our existence does not ultimately belong to us, then our ownership of anything is necessarily non-absolute. Denying this amounts to denying that we are creatures who are dependent upon a creator. Consequently, any consideration of ownership must be framed by this theological commitment to God’s ultimate ownership of all things.
The Second Vatican Council made explicit the connection between the ethical theory of rights and the theological nature of ownership. St. Pope John Paul II later clarified this with the term, the “universal destination of goods.” In his encyclical on labor, he called this the “first principle” of the social order.
In sum, our rights to ownership are bound up with God’s purposes and ultimate ownership, meant to serve rather than dishonor God. In John Paul II’s language, all we own is owned on a “social mortgage.” Just societies should protect rights to private ownership so that citizens can use their property to serve God and neighbor.
The universal destination of goods clarifies that any mastery we possess in this life must be oriented toward honoring God. Because, as Christians, we are called to do so through love of neighbor, our moral right to ownership ultimately rests on using our possessions in service to the common good.
This article also appears in the April 2026 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 91, No. 4, page 38). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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