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