Universal destination of goods

The universal destination of goods is a concept in Catholic theology, by which the Catholic Church professes that the goods of creation are destined for mankind as a whole, but also recognizes the individual right to private property.

Teaching

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
In 1967, Pope Paul VI wrote in the encyclical Populorum progressio:
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states:
Pope Francis included commentaries on this concept in his 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato si', where he refers to "the common destination of goods", and in his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli tutti.

Notable uses of the term

Thomas Banchoff of Georgetown University in the USA noted in an article in The Tablet in September 2023 that, since the 1891 publication of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, "Catholic Social Teaching has been organised around core principles including human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity and the universal destination of goods".