The president and co-founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, the Reverend Robert Sirico, addressed the Rotary Club of New York on Tuesday on the topic of “Christmas Greetings: Peace, Social Harmony and Free Enterprise.” He was introduced by his brother, Tony Sirico who appears in the HBO series “The Sopranos” as Paulie Walnuts.

Tony Sirico opened by saying he doesn’t generally hang out in places like the private club where the event was held. He said he was raised on a rough street in Brooklyn, which was good training for his role on “The Sopranos.”

Taking to the podium, Rev. Sirico said that their mother – when asked what she thought of his brother’s television roles playing a gangster – would respond, “I’m just glad he’s acting.”

Rev. Sirico, whose ecumenical think tank is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., said he hadn’t lived in New York in 30 years but that it was exhilarating to be back.

He spoke of the current holiday season as a time where some businesses make as much as half their profits for the whole year. He praised free enterprise as the necessary precondition for people to be prosperous, which in turn allows them to be generous: “You can’t give what you haven’t produced.”

Admitting that greed is dangerous and materialism can be “very seductive,” Rev. Sirico argued that free enterprise was a necessary but not sufficient condition for building a virtuous society. For instance, Rev. Sirico said Karl Marx had put forth the idea that capitalism involves an “intrinsic hostility” between owner and labor that permeates society. But what is this moral suspicion numerous religious leaders have of free enterprise?

“We can’t deny that conflict exists,” he said.

Much of sociology is predicated on social conflict, and the press loves to recount the story of such conflict. However, conflict is not necessarily normative, he said.

Rev. Sirico said he preferred Mother Teresa’s formulation not of class struggle but of “class encounter.”

Rev. Sirico said it was one of the great models of human cooperation that every day, hundreds of millions of people cooperate with one another across different languages and cultures in commerce. The normative way (but not in all cases, he reminded the audience), he said was peaceful and not conflictual.

Free enterprise, he said, is not merely about fast food and cheap toys.

He said modern society had more access to medical care, and there has been a rise in the standard of living such as has never been seen before. The fact that many lack access to potable water or go to bed hungry is not grounds for destroying the system – rather, he said, enhance it and make it more efficient. “The system is underappreciated and frequently vilified,” he said.

One questioner asked about tithing. Rev. Sirico referred to the passage in Malachi where it discusses giving one tenth of one’s income to the needy. He added in deadpan, “Before taxes, theologians say.” When the audience laughed, he added, “Sorry.”

He called it the “synoptic delusion” that one can plan all the needs of society from a central governing body or Politburo, and said that information dispersed across society increased intelligence of the whole.

“Your ideas are universal,” another audience member said. The reverend quipped that that was not the case, since many disagreed with him. He went on to clarify that if the questioner meant universal in the sense of being true, it was not because he invented them, but because one discovers them.

One questioner asked how corporations could realize large profits, while wages increased so little. Rev. Sirico replied that often profits are reinvested, some into pension funds, which help workers.

At one point, Rev. Sirico said the organization he heads was nonpartisan, and he was not a member of a political party. Playing on the biblical phrase “publicans and sinners,” he added, “Even though Jesus ate with Republicans and sinners.”

Rev. Sirico ended on a transcendent note, quoting French Roman-Catholic philosopher Etienne Gilson, whose description of Notre Dame could be analogized to this city’s large spires: If you want to build such a structure, one must first understand geometry. Rev. Sirico said, “Piety is never a substitute for technique.”