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Why Communism/Socialism is harmful to the human person, and society

06-04-2023Weekly Reflection

Every question under discussion, every revolutionary idea and every conservative reaction—all boil down to the question, How should man be treated? … (W)e can only answer this in the light of our view of what man is. No society can be united, if it is not united about this fundamental question Society and Sanity (p. 9).

Catholics who wish to understand the Church’s teaching warning about the evil of communism ought to read the landmark encyclical of Pope Pius XI On Atheistic Communism. What is the attraction of communism today, not to mention socialism?

In #8 of the encyclical it points out: A pseudo-ideal of justice, of equality and fraternity in labor impregnates all its doctrine and activity with a deceptive mysticism, which communicates a zealous and contagious enthusiasm to the multitudes entrapped by delusive promises. In many of our contemporaries in their rejection of God and/or Christianity, there is a religious vacuum created and people search for meaning in their lives because as St. Augustine teaches God created us for Himself and human beings will be restless until they rest in Him. Thus there are many adopted “pseudo secular religions”: political correctness, vegan diets, manmade climate change, socialism, and communism. This often captivates youth and well-intentioned people seeking to make a difference and change the world. What better themes for this than justice and equality, especially equality?”

Pius XI notes in his encyclical: In man's relations with other individuals,..Communists hold the principle of absolute equality, rejecting all hierarchy and divinely-constituted authority, including the authority of parents. (emphasis added) What men call authority and subordination is derived from the community as its first and only font. Nor is the individual granted any property rights over material goods or the means of production, for inasmuch as these are the source of further wealth, their possession would give one man power over another. Precisely on this score, all forms of private property must be eradicated, for they are at the origin of all economic enslavement. St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans reminds us that all authority comes from God.

Refusing to human life any sacred or spiritual character, such a doctrine logically makes of marriage and the family a purely artificial and civil institution, the outcome of a specific economic system. There exists no matrimonial bond of a juridico-moral nature that is not subject to the whim of the individual or of the collectivity. Naturally, therefore, the notion of an indissoluble marriage-tie is scouted. Communism is particularly characterized by the rejection of any link that binds woman to the family and the home and her emancipation is proclaimed as a basic principle. She is withdrawn from the family and the care of her children, to be thrust instead into public life and collective production under the same conditions as man. The care of home and children then devolves upon the collectivity. Finally, the right of education is denied to parents, for it is conceived as the exclusive prerogative of the community, in whose name and by whose mandate alone parents may exercise this right. 

Socialism is seen as the bridge to Communism. The major difference between Socialism and Communism is in the method of takeover. Socialism (and Progressivism) believes that it can centralize all control of the individual, land and industry by peaceful, but gradual, legislation; whereas Communism seeks a violent and final confrontation to eliminate all dissension to achieve its Utopian goal of a Stateless and Classless society. But make no mistake; what is the same in all three ideologies is the desire to seize monolithic control of society. Mussolini called this the Totalitarian Society: “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

About socialism, Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno asked: But what if Socialism has really been so tempered and modified as to the class struggle and private ownership that there is in it no longer anything to be censured on these points? Has it thereby renounced its contradictory nature to the Christian religion? This is the question that holds many minds in suspense. And numerous are the Catholics who, although they clearly understand that Christian principles can never be abandoned or diminished seem to turn their eyes to the Holy See and earnestly beseech Us to decide whether this form of Socialism has so far recovered from false doctrines that it can be accepted without the sacrifice of any Christian principle and in a certain sense be baptized. That We, in keeping with Our fatherly solicitude, may answer their petitions, We make this pronouncement: Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.

For, according to Christian teaching, man, endowed with a social nature, is placed on this earth so that by leading a life in society and under an authority ordained of God he may fully cultivate and develop all his faculties unto the praise and glory of his Creator; and that by faithfully fulfilling the duties of his craft or other calling he may obtain for himself temporal and at the same time eternal happiness.

Socialism, on the other hand, wholly ignoring and indifferent to this sublime end of both man and society, affirms that human association has been instituted for the sake of material advantage alone. If Socialism, like all errors, contains some truth (which, moreover, the Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), it is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist. All these admonitions which have been renewed and confirmed by Our solemn authority must likewise be applied to a certain new kind of socialist activity, hitherto little known but now carried on among many socialist groups. It devotes itself above all to the training of the mind and character. Under the guise of affection it tries in particular to attract children of tender age and win them to itself, although it also embraces the whole population in its scope in order finally to produce true socialists who would shape human society to the tenets of Socialism. Here is Pope John Paul II who lived under communism on socialism:

The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature .(emphasis added) Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil. Man is thus reduced to a series of social relationships, and the concept of the person as the autonomous subject of moral decision disappears, the very subject whose decisions build the social order. From this mistaken conception of the person there arise both a distortion of law, which defines the sphere of the exercise of freedom, and an opposition to private property. 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. Centesimus Annus − On the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, May 1, 1991, n. 12

Pope Benedict XVI warned: 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. 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.

Communism’s 45 goals were read into the Congressional Record by Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr., (D-Florida), in 1963. These goals were gleaned from the testimony given to Congress by scholars and from the writings of current or former Communists. Here is a sample of the goals:

  • Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
  • Get control of the schools and teachers’ associations. Soften the curriculum.
  • Gain control of all student newspapers.
  • Infiltrate the press.
  • Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and pictures.
  • Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and press.
  • Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in the media.
  • Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, and healthy.”
  • Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion.
  • Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principal of “separation of Church and State.
  • Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate and old-fashioned.
  • Discredit the American founding fathers as selfish aristocrats [and racists].
  • Belittle American culture and discourage the teaching of American history. -Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
  • Infiltrate and gain control of big business and unions.
  • Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as mental health or social problems.
  • Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
  • Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.
  • Repeal the Connally Reservation, allowing the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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