Are not Catholics taught that the economic distress of the world is caused by supernatural influences, and that they must simply endure it?

No. Catholics have been urged over and over again by their Church to do their utmost towards the rehabilitation of the world. They do believe in God and in God’s providence. They believe that all the miseries of this world have been permitted by God, or they would not exist. But they are due to man’s own political and economic maladministration. Catholics also believe that, if men lead evil lives, they forfeit the right to God’s blessings, both spiritual and temporal. They know that sin and corruption and irreligion are very wide-spread evils, and that there will be room for hope that God will spare men many of the afflictions they deserve if men will but remedy their lives and begin to serve God earnestly, loving their neighbors for the love of God.

Radio Replies Volume 1 by Rev. Dr. Leslie Rumble MSC and Rev. Charles Mortimer Carty