Part I
Last
summer, the Jesuit magazine “America” ran an article that raised considerable
waves. Entitled “The Catholic Case for Communism”, the author tries to
reconcile Communism with the Catholic Faith. Communism, and its younger sister
Socialism, is continuing to make headlines as we have presidential candidates
who espouse certain socialist ideas. Seventy percent of millennials said they
would vote for a socialist candidate, and a November 2019 poll found that 36%
of that same demographic said that they have a “favorable view” of communism.
What does the Church teach about both social philosophies, and are they
compatible with the Catholic Faith?
Back in
1891, Pope Leo XIII observed a growing class struggle between the laborers and
the capital, the owners and the workers. Workers had righteous grievances –
their hours were long, they were underpaid, and were often forced into
dangerous labor to support the luxurious lives of the rich. This tension began
to foment the seeds of class warfare, and ideas had arisen which justified an
outright war between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. It had been almost fifty
years since the publication of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx
(published in 1848) and some were anxious to try to apply this new social
philosophy of communism as a way to correct the legitimate injustices and
grievances that workers toiled beneath.
But Pope
Leo XIII saw that Communism was not the answer. He penned one of the most
important Church documents, “Rerum Novarum” (“Of New Things”) in 1891 to
address this growing call for Communism.
In this
encyclical, the Pope struck a middle ground between the current situation and
the proposed solution. He supported workers’ unions and their right to strike
for better pay and safer working conditions. He also was strong in his
condemnation of unbridled capitalism, recognizing that greed was the root cause
of such violations of human rights (after all, as St. Paul tells Timothy, “Love
of money is the root of all evil” [1 Tim 6:10]).
But he
was equally clear in his unequivocal condemnation of socialism and communism.
It has always and everywhere been taught by the Church that private property is
one of the basic human rights – thus, to eliminate it through Communism would
be a grievous error and violation of rights.
One of
the other fundamental rights from the natural law, mentioned by Pope Leo XIII,
is the right of subsidiarity. This
means that decisions and control should be best exercised by those “closest to
the action”, as it were – if a local authority is capable of handling the
decision, they should not have their authority subsumed by a higher authority.
For example, parents have the authority to determine what schools their child
should attend – it would be a violation of those rights if the state sought to
impose their will upon a child’s education. Certainly things like speed limits
and other local regulations should be regulated by the county or state
government without the federal government stepping in.
The Pope
saw clearly that Communism (and Socialism) would usurp the roles proper to each
authority, since communism demands that all authority be concentrated in the
State. Thus, the natural human right of subsidiarity would be destroyed.
But
these condemnations of Communism and Socialism did not stop with “Rerum
Novarum”. Rather, as Communism began to spread its philosophies across the
globe from Russia to China to Cuba to Croatia, more recent Popes felt the need
to speak out.
Pope
Pius XI in 1937 wrote an entire encyclical, “Divini Redemptoris”, on the
dangers of Communism, including the following introduction: “This all too imminent danger, Venerable
Brethren, as you have already surmised, is Bolshevistic and atheistic
Communism, which aims at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very
foundations of Christian civilization.” In 1949, another document was
released, entitled “Against Communism” with many of the same objections as
prior documents. But this document was even clearer insofar as Pope Pius XII
declared that any Catholics who professed Communist doctrine were automatically
excommunicated!
Later
popes continued the unbroken rhetoric of condemnation of Communism and
Socialism, all the way up to Pope John Paul II’s “Centesimus Anni”, issued in
1991 on the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum’s release.
Even our
Blessed Mother warned against Communism. The apparitions started six months
before the Bolshevik revolution in Russia (1917), and Our Lady consistently
urged for prayers and sacrifices to be made for Russia. She warned, “If Russia
was not consecrated [to the Immaculate Heart of Mary], it would spread its
errors throughout the world.” We can see how quickly that came to pass – China
became Communist in 1949, and Cuba followed suit in 1959, before continuing to
spread across the globe.
So why,
exactly, are Communism and Socialism incompatible with Catholicism?
Part II
Last post, we took up the question of whether a Catholic could ascribe to the social
philosophy of communism and socialism, and discovered that the Church has
always and everywhere condemned the ideology. Today we will look at why the Church has always taught it.
What are the fundamental principles of communism and socialism that make it
incompatible with the Catholic Faith?
First,
let us define our terms. Communism is the social philosophy that abolishes all
private property. All is (theoretically) owned by everyone, and everyone
contributes to the social order. As Marx put it so succinctly, “From each
according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In Communism, the
state owns everything (property, factories, businesses, etc) and is responsible
for disbursing the goods to all people.
Socialism
is closely related. In itself, socialism is a broader term that just means that
everything is owned by everybody (wealth is distributed more evenly, so there
are no rich and no poor). But in its recent incarnation among certain
politicians, it usually means that all social services are free and
administered by government programs (social services include education – along
with higher education like college, health care, federal jobs programs, and the
like). Its current proponents do not
seek to abolish private property. It does
want to have a huge welfare state, with cradle-to-grave care provided by the
State. Socialism currently still supports a democracy, while Communism seeks to
abolish that.
What
could be wrong with the basic ideas of equality and justice, which are the
driving force behind communism and socialism? Plenty, because their brand of
“equality and justice” are not based upon a proper human anthropology
(understanding of the human person). Here are several problems with communism
and socialism:
1. As Pope John XXIII said, “The reason [why Catholics can’t be
socialists] is that Socialism takes no account of any objective other than that
of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social
organization which aims solely at production; it places too severe a restraint
on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social
authority.” Socialism and Communism see the human person as nothing more
than a “producer” – what can they contribute to the State? This is vastly
different from our Church’s teaching that a human being has value because they
are made in the Image and Likeness of God, not because they can produce or
contribute anything. Communism (and to a lesser degree, Socialism) do not
acknowledge the spiritual nature of the human person – they are merely
material, collateral for the collective – and 100 million deaths proves this to
be true.
2. As Pope John Paul II said, “A person who is deprived of something he can
call “his own,” and of the possibility of earning a living through his own
initiative, comes to depend on the social machine and on those who control it.
This makes it much more difficult for him to recognize his dignity as a person,
and hinders progress towards the building up of an authentic human community.”
There is a basic human right to private property. It is not an absolute right
(it can be taken away for legitimate reasons, such as taxes), but part of the
dignity of being human is the gift of owning things. God gave the earth to us
for our stewardship, and every son of Adam and daughter of Eve exercises that
dominion in the small slice of the world they own.
3. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “We do not need a State which regulates and
controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of
subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the
different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in
need. The Church is one of those living forces.” Socialism and Communism
does not respect the principle of Subsidiarity. They usurp the role that should
rightfully be the local community, the Church, and the family.
4. Pope Benedict goes on to say,
“The State which would provide
everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere
bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering
person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern.” This is one of
the biggest issues – a lack of love and generosity. The poor remain with us so that Christians can love them. No
government bureaucracy can possibly love. This is why the ideas behind
socialism/communism succeed tremendously in communities such as monasteries and
convents and fail utterly in the secular world – small Christian communities
are motivated by love, which can be the only proper motivation for sharing our
possessions.
5. In Communism/Socialism, the
temptation is always to entrust the State with more and more power, which has
always led to the view that any other institution needs to be suppressed if it
does not correspond with the ideology of the State. In every place where
Communism has been practiced, the Church has been heavily persecuted or
compromised, and millions of souls have died daring to contradict the secular
propaganda of the State.
6. Communism/Socialism fail to
take into account that human nature is wounded by original sin. Absent of
grace, why would anyone want to work harder if the fruits of their labor is
only going to be given to those who didn’t work? St. Paul tells the
Thessalonians, “If anyone does not work, they should not eat” (1 Thess 3:10).
Each man should be compensated justly for their own work, as a matter of
justice – taxation such as we have in modern socialist states (People in
Denmark pay 45% of their income to the government) is unjust, as it does not
respect the dignity of work or the right to benefit from one’s labor.
In conclusion, I would just cite
what Vladimir Lenin (the bloodthirsty dictator of Russia) once said about
Communism: “Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory
and practice of scientific socialism.”
Catholics cannot ever support
Communism or Socialism. These ideologies are based upon a flawed understanding
of labor, the dignity of the person, the principle of subsidiarity, and the
understanding of original sin. Let us pray that such ideas never take root in
America!
