Occult Compensation is, in the radical Catholic tradition, the extra-legal taking of goods from a person who refused to meet the demands of justice, for a value equivalent to the loss or damage inflicted.
Occult compensation is a demand in commutative justice and deducible from the principle of self-defense. It is, of course, open to all manner of abuses, but the utter denial of it gives the weak no redress against the oppression of the strong.
Catholics believe that occult compensation is justifiable only when
- The right of the creditor is certain
- No recourse to the law is possible or feasible
If the debtor or his heirs later make redress, restitution is necessary.
Reasonable efforts must be made to prevent scandal.
Famous quotes containing the words occult and/or compensation:
“Capital is money, capital is commodities.... By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“I have everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith, good friends and all the work I can possibly do. I think God’s greatest blessing to the human race was when He sent man forth into the world to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. I believe in toil, in the dignity of labor, but I also believe in adequate compensation for that toil.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)