MyCatholicSource.com - 'Quick Help' Page: Socialism/Communism

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Neither socialism or communism are acceptable.

In the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, "Quod Apostolici Muneris", Communism is called...

"the fatal plague which insinuates itself into the very marrow of human society only to bring about its ruin"

In "Quadragesimo Anno", Pope Pius XI, said the following regarding socialism...

"Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism... cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth... [N]o one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist."

Other relevant quotations...

"Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever." (Pope Pius XI)

"Communism by its nature is anti-religious. It considers religion as 'the opiate of the people' because the principles of religion which speak of a life beyond the grave dissuade the proletariat from the dream of a...paradise which is of this world." (Pope Pius XI)

"Where Communism has been able to assert its power...it has striven by every possible means, as its champions openly boast, to destroy Christian civilizations and the Christian religion by banishing every remembrance of them from the hearts of men, especially of the young." (Pope Pius XI)

"[Communism] strips man of his liberty, robs human personality of all its dignity and removes all the moral restrains that check the eruptions of blind impulse. There is no recognition of any right of the individual in his relations to the collectivity; no natural right is accorded to human personality, which is a mere cog-wheel in the Communist system. In man's relations with other individuals, besides, Communists hold the principle of absolute equality, rejecting all hierarchy and divinely constituted authority, including the authority of parents." (Pope Pius XI)

"Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal." (Pope Leo XIII)

"There would be today neither Socialism or Communism if the rulers of the nations had not scorned the teachings and maternal warnings of the Church. On the bases of Liberalism and laicism they wished to build other social edifices which, powerful and imposing as they seemed at first, all too soon revealed the weaknesses of their foundations, and today are crumbling one after another before our eyes, as everything must crumble that is not grounded on the one cornerstone which is Christ Jesus." (Pope Pius XI)

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