PESCH, HEINRICH. - Jesuit, writer on social policy and national economics, b. at Cologne on 17 Sept. 1854, d. at Valkenburg on 1 Apr. 1926.
Having entered the Society of Jesus on 10 Jan. 1876, after studying law and social sciences at the theological faculty of Bonn, he was ordained priest in 1888. He devoted himself entirely to writing on national economic topics. His preparation included private instruction at the castle of Türmütz in Bohemia (1889) from the publicist R. Meyer, who attempted in vain to draw him into his theories of state socialism; personal observations gathered during travels in England and Belgium; his activity as spiritual director at the seminary of Mainz, where social studies were flourishing (1892-1901); and new studies undertaken, almost at the age of forty, under A. Wagner at the University of Berlin (1901-1903), amidst young students. From Berlin he moved to Luxembourg, collaborating on the Stimmen aus Maria Laach, and in 1910 returned to Berlin, at the Good Shepherd Sisters’ house in Marienfeld, where he was able to complete his principal work.
During his years in Mainz he had published: Liberalismus, Sozialismus und christliche Gesellschaftsordnung (2 vols., Freiburg in Br. 1893-1900; 2nd ed., ibid. 1901), a systematic study of the relations between Catholic social thought and the two dominant currents of the time; from Berlin came his masterpiece: Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie (5 vols., ibid. 1905-1907), which aroused the greatest interest as the first modern work of economics inspired by Catholic principles, independent of the prevailing schools yet grounded in all the scientific and practical experience exploited by others. In it he expounds and defends his social system, which he himself termed “Christian solidarism.” Collective social well-being must necessarily be founded upon an organic conception of society, namely upon the interdependence and solidarity of the various social groups; neither the individual taken alone nor society taken alone will secure this well-being, but the two elements must harmonize together. The individual exists also for society, and society exists also for the individual; hence a social order is required in which the free activity of individuals is harmonized with the common good, the interests of workers with those of employers. In other words, it is not the instruments of labour that need to be socialized, but human beings. After the First World War other opportunities arose for Fr. Pesch to guide minds amid the new social tendencies that were emerging; accordingly he published, generally drawing on material from the Lehrbuch: Solidarisierung (ibid. 1919); Christlicher Solidarismus und soziales Arbeitsystem (ibid. 1924); Des wissenschaftlichen Sozialismus Irrgang und Ende (ibid. 1924), etc.