Faith and Community Threatened? Roman Catholic Responses to the Welfare State, Materialism and Social Mobility, 1945-62

The Beveridge Report and the election of a Labour governmentin 1945 both reflected and created a new climate for Catholics,no less than for other groups. A debate raged about how Catholicteaching, with its emphasis on limiting state encroachment,squared with the Welfare State, with respect to the way in whichpeople should make provision for the basic needs of themselvesand their families. The battle lines were drawn between thosewho rejected the notion that the state should provide socialservices, believing instead that individuals should be freeto make their own arrangements, and those who felt at ease withthe new system of state-prescribed benefits. While the vastmajority of Catholics fell into the later camp, others, notablythe eminent economist Colin Clark and his Jesuit champion FrPaul Crane, were firmly in the former. They drew upon ideasfrom a well-established tradition of native Catholic thought(typified by the Distributist movement) to argue against a Britainbased on Beveridge, and that society should be organized soas to provide each individual with the opportunity to fulfiltheir godly destiny. ¹Thanks are due to Tony Carew and Peter Thompson and the refereesfor Twentieth Century British History for their comments onearlier drafts of this piece