For nearly one hundred years, the great papal texts that constitute the social doctrine of the Church did not offer a definition of capitalism and therefore did not take a definitive position on this dominant economic system. While elements of reflection on this subject are present in different papal documents, the contours of what the popes interpret as “capitalism” are not clearly established. This long absence of characterisation is in some sense inherent in capitalism itself, but it is linked above all to a difficulty in defining the nature of the social doctrine of the Church.