I said nothing about Pope John Paul II endorsing any "market economy  
ideology."  People have ideologies; a market economy is just one of people  
producing and exchanging commodities.  The "business economy" or "free  
economy" or "market economy" is what John Paul II endorses in section 42 of  
Centesimus Annus.  He said that "should be the goal of the countries now  
making efforts to rebuild their economy and society."  
  
So far as any assumption of motive for participants in a market economy is  
concerned, "people acting for individual self-interest" was part of various  
theories of the market economy that were common in the 18th and 19th  
centuries.  We now know that it is not necessary to attribute paticular  
motives to trading parties, other than the assumption that they expect what  
they gain through exchange to be of higher value than what they give up.  In  
that sense, Mother Teresa and Donald Trump were birds of a feather.  
  
And, yes, Pope John Paul II sees a role for the interventionist state to use  
law as a means of imposing certain ethical and religious views on  
participants in a market economy.  He is vague as to what those are, but is  
more specific in other parts of the encyclical on the role of the state in  
limiting child labor, and so on.  
  
In thinking about the moral dimension of the actions of human beings in  
various social and economic systems, I am always reminded of the explanation  
of the difference between capitalism and socialism: Under capitalism, man  
exploits man; under socialism, it's the other way around.  
  
Samuel Bostaph