Socialism and Catholic Social Teaching

Socialism and Social Justice: What’s the Difference? Is socialism the correct political application of Catholic teaching on social justice? Jesus said “welcome the stranger,” and aren’t those crossing the border illegally strangers? Does His admonition to “feed the hungry” mean the government should provide food subsidies and government-run grocery stores? Does “sheltering the homeless” mean we should want public housing, or taxpayer subsidized housing, for everyone below a certain income level?

Not necessarily. Catholics are morally obliged and should want to help the stranger, the hungry, and the homeless, but they can rightfully object to immoral socialist means for doing so. This is why Pope Pius XI wrote:

“No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist.”

Regarding immigration, Pope John Paul II said that the right to immigrate to a particular country “…is to be regulated, because practicing it indiscriminately may do harm and be detrimental to the common good of the community that receives the immigrant.” To take this example further: Who are the most defenseless, helpless people whose lives are at stake? They are the unborn, who already reside in their native land. But socialists believe that taking their lives is a “right” that should be funded via “universal healthcare.”

Regarding “feeding the hungry,” and “sheltering the homeless,” Catholic teaching is that we should gladly feed the hungry, and shelter the homeless, and not throw these obligations entirely on the federal government. To the extent possible, this should be done at the local level. Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future debacle showed how ineffective and costly federal and state oversight can be. The government’s primary role should be to provide a framework which enables people to purchase food out of their income, and own their residence.

As to government-run grocery stores, such as those proposed in New York City, which would be exempt from rent and property taxes, this unfair advantage could drive smaller family run grocery stores out of business. Catholic teaching is to induce more people to own property and businesses so that they can enjoy the fruits of their labor, and as a way of protecting citizens from becoming the servile dependents of an oppressive welfare state.

Perhaps the major differences between Catholic Social Teaching and the tenets of socialism lie in their understanding of the human person and truth. Catholics believe that we are spiritual and eternal beings “made in the image and likeness of God,” and that our rights are determined not by the state, or the “will of the people,” but by God. Catholics believe that truth is objective and unchanging. Socialists, in contrast, often believe that we are the product of material forces. They do not believe in unchanging, objective truth. Consequently, socialists believe that our rights come from the collective will, and that they have a right to interfere with the family if what parents teach contradicts their current understanding of truth. Many states, for example, including Minnesota, now prohibit licensed mental health practitioners from providing reparative therapy, or what opponents call “conversion therapy,” to minors who are sexually attracted to those of the same sex or “identify” as one of the opposite sex. To quote Bp. Sheen: “Submission to a creed as the state understands it is the principal dogma of the new totalitarianism.”

The pathologies of socialism include:

1. A misunderstanding of the importance of private property.  It’s worth recalling that Communism, Nazism, and Fascism all contain a socialist economic component. The government either completely seizes the industry or property, or makes property ownership so onerous through taxes, regulations and mandates, that they deprive the actual owner of the benefits of ownership. The result is a collapse such as Venezuela experienced when its oil industry was nationalized. In contrast, private property encourages the satisfaction and freedom that results when one has used his God given talents.

2. The attack on the family via misguided government programs hurts the social order, as the Moynihan Report indicated in 1965.

3. Growth of the “welfare state,” if unchecked, results in an overbearing totalitarian state. Venezuela’s welfare state, for example, which seemed to work, until it didn’t, imprisons political opponents and will not recognize election results.

4. Socialists believe that by changing externals, they will create a just society, but they neglect the need for religion and virtue.

Pope Pius XI wrote that “…social reconstruction must be preceded by a profound renewal of the Christian spirit.” That is our duty. Toward that end, we might keep in mind this maxim which encapsulates the core pillars of St. Augustine’s theology and philosophy: “That society alone is capable of happiness, whose queen is truth, whose law is love and whose end is eternity.”

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam