Today, we ponder in amazement over the "existential despondency" which grips the rich young man «for he was a man of great wealth». The problem is not the possessions, but our inability to love by our excessive addiction to them. The social doctrine of the Church supports private property and teaches that every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own but, at the same time, his possession —as private property— is legitimate to ensure the freedom and dignity of people.

The right to private property (like all other individual rights), when detached from a framework of duties which grant them their full meaning, can run wild, numbing the human heart before others needs. Duties set a limit on rights because they point to the anthropological and ethical framework in which rights are a part in this way ensuring that they do not become license.

—The right to "private property" must be accompanied by a "social mortgage", namely, the duty to possess property in a way compassionate with the needs of our neighbors.