U.S. Catholics, U.S., economy.

TWO PUBLIC letters from U.S. Catholics should appear just after election day. A few days prior to their annual meeting, scheduled for November 12, the U.S. Catholic bishops will have released the first draft of their important new pastoral letter on the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, a self-constituted lay commission of some thirty Catholic lay persons, led by William Simon, has scheduled its own letter on the same subject for publication on November 7. The choosing of these dates has been jointly coordinated.

The Catholic bishops will speak with the full authority of their office. The lay commission, answering the call of the bishops for a broad national debate, claims no such authority. It will be meeting the obligation assigned lay persons by Vatican Council II, that they should reflect on their own daily work in the light of the Gospels. Complementary Letters

The members of the lay commission include Peter M. Flanigan, James Finn, James Q. Wilson, Norman Ture, J. Peter Grace, Clare Boothe Luce, Caesar Arredondo, Alberta Sbragia, Alexander M. Haig, Charles G. Tildon Jr., Ellen wilson Fielding, Steven G. Rothmeier, George J. Gillespie III, Joe M. Haggar Jr., Joseph Alibrandi, Frank Shakespeare, Walter J. Hickel, John R. Gaines, Mary Ellen Bork, and James McFadden, president of the American Catholic Committee, in NEw York, and former Labor commissioner of New York City, among others. [Michael Novak is vice chairman of the commission.] William Simon, Michael Joyce, and George Gillespie conceived the idea in January 1984.

The lay commission has been cooperating with the bishops, in word and in act. It deliberately chose a release date before that of the bishops, to preserve the form of an advisory document and to avoid even seeming to offer a response. The commission expects that the two letters will be complementary.

It is of some historic interest that such a group of distinguished Catholic lay persoins could now be collected. It seems unprecedented that laymen would issue a public statement of the relation of their religious faith to the U.S. economy.

Ninety-five years ago almost to the day, on November 9-11, 1889, the first (and only) National Congress of Catholic Laymen met in Baltimore to discuss the Catholic experience in the new land. The novelty of this new political economy--and its potential intellectual significance of Rome--was a common theme. At that time, emphasis was on the U.S. political system; today, on the U.S. economic system.

The 110-page statement of the lay commission, Toward the Future, begins with reflection on three passages in Matthew 25: the parable of the ten virgins (five wise, five foolish); the parable of the talents; and the passage on feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty. It then examines what Catholic social thought has taught America, and what the American experience has pioneered in practice for Catholic social thought. It makes vigorous use of the testimony of such notable U.S. Catholic bishops of the last century as Ireland, Hughes, and Spalding, as well as of Alexis de Tocqueville and Orestes Brownson.

There are three fundamental principles of Catholic social thought: the dignity of the human person, the social nature of human life, and the principle of subsidiarity (decisions should be made by those closest to the realities involved). Analogous principles have inspired many aspects to the American order, the novus ordo seclorum of which the Founders were so self-conscious.

Meanwhile, the American experiment in political economy--as Tocqueville saw, from a European's perspective--involved the invention of several new principles of political economy that are of high value to practical peoples everywhere. These include the practice of association, the habit of cooperation, and the "principle of self-interest rightly udnerstood" (that is, in a way which does not divide "self" from "society"). Specific Problems

Possibly, the work of the commission will do for the U.S. economy what John Courtney Murray, SJ, did for the U.S. tradition of religious liberty--bring it squarely into the consciousness of the Catholic Church, here and abroad.

Part II of Toward the Future develops the theme of the "creation theology" enunciated by Pope John Paul II in Laborem Exercens and applies it to the many characteristics of a modern, reformed capitalism, conjoined to democracy and a vital moral order. These include the universally distributed virtue of enterprise; cross-cultural comparisons; and questions such as unions, the profit motive, "self-interest," multinational corporations, and rich and poor nations.

Part III takes up five specific problem areas in the U.S.--and the world--economy: the family, poverty and welfare, job creation, international trade, cooperation and providence (the American way of "planning").

By the time this column appears, both letters, episcopal and lay, should have been made public. To obtain the complete text of the bishops' letter contact: National Catholic News Service, 1225 Massachussets Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. For a copy of Toward the Future, write to: Lay Commission, P.O. Box 364, North Tarrytown, N.Y. 10591.