In his paper, Human Dignity, Personal Liberty, Michael Novak has clearly pointed out the contribution of a rejuvenated economic science (in the properly understood sense of the term), founded on the person and placed in the historical context of old-world statism, burgeoning socialism, and a relatively sterile economic science modeled on mathematics. While it is true that Leo XIII did point out the major flaws of both socialism and the older authoritarian system, as Schumpeter discussed, there really is no thorough defense of capitalism as a moral economic system. The result has been that discussion of the free market, even by Christians, has been mostly ideological. Novaks works are a major contribution to the clarification of the truth of the market economy and its compatibility to mans God-given nature and to Catholic teaching.
William R. Luckey, "Catholic Reflections on the Basis of the Pluralist Structure of Society," Journal of Markets & Morality 5, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 95-111