Rev. Robert Sirico, the president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, discussed the proper balance between preserving public health and staving off economic collapse in a sweeping interview with Raymond Arroyo on Thursday night’s edition of EWTN’s The World Over.

“One of the first things I think we need to do is to resist this dichotomizing, this radical separation of the economy from human beings,” Rev. Sirico said. “After all, the economy is for human beings. The human person is the center of the economy. The economy emerges out of human action, out of human decision-making.”

In the 10-minute segment, which aired over the global Catholic television network, Rev. Sirico addressed an array of issues concerning the economic fallout of public lockdowns intended to slow the transmission of the coronavirus.

In a matter of minutes, he highlighted the wisdom of decentralized decision-making, how regulations have hampered the private sector’s ability to respond to the global pandemic, how South bated COVID-19 without shuttering its economy, the fraud of stimulus “fiat checks,” and the epidemic’s “real lesson about the dignity of work.” He also includes a brief historical overview of how the Church has traditionally responded during extreme health crises.

You can watch the full video below: