Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
What Do the Popes Truly Say About Socialism?

What Do the Popes Truly Say About Socialism?

Last updated on: October 6, 2015 at 10:16 am by Artur Rosman

What Do the Popes Truly Say About Socialism? 2015-10-06T10:16:24-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

But in the practice of capitalism the Church also rejects self centered individualism and an absolute primacy of the laws of the marketplace over human labor.

Yikes! Not only does the Catechism of the Catholic Church distinguish between forms of socialism, some of which are completely unacceptable, it strikes down capitalism in its essence.

John Paul II: anti-socialist?

Taking John Paul II as anti-socialist is not a conclusion one should accept without qualification. John Paul II rejected, like his predecessors and successors, communism, or, forms of socialism that are atheistic or totalitarian.

In Centesimus Annus, John Paul II does two things that you would not know if you un-learned Catholic teaching from the American Enterprise Institute:

1) He qualifies his predecessor’s rejection of socialism (paragraph 12), and;

2) He qualifies his rejection of socialism as rejecting “Real socialism” (paragraphs 12, 13, and 35). For example, “We have seen that it is unacceptable to say that the defeat of so-called ‘Real Socialism’ leaves capitalism as the only model of economic organization.”

Dussel does the popes on socialism.

John Paul II doesn’t reject socialism outright, in fact, it can be argued that he rejects some socialism in principle. Centesimus Annus builds on and presupposes, instead of correcting, John Paul II’s previous encyclicals (paragraph 10). It would also benefit us to note that Centesimus Annus affirms that a market economy, innovation, entrepreneurship, etc., none of which are exclusive to capitalism. In fact, the capitalism we reject, is rejected by the pope in the encyclical. When people mean to express a market system with appropriate private property, entrepreneurship, etc., but use the word “capitalism”, John Paul II explains that the appropriate term would be market economy, or free economy, or business economy. A system, like capitalism, which rejects the priority of labor over capital, among other things, is rightly rejected (see, for example, paragraph 42).

Laborem Exercens is especially troublesome for the pro-capitalist cause – indeed, some could say that the capitalist cause should have ended with Laborem Exercens (at least to the degree pro-capitalists wanted to be pro-Christian ethic).

It would be easier to provide a short quote from a section of Enrique Dussel’s study Ethics and Community covering Laborem Exercens:

Surely a central place in the history of the social teaching of the church must be assigned to Laborem Exercens. This encyclical moves to a head-on criticism of capitalism-capitalism in its very essence- and approves of socialism in principle.

Now it is socialism that comes in for particular criticisms and a call for internal reform. The orientation conferred on the social teaching of the church in 1891 has been reversed. If the earlier “key” was private property, now “human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the entire social question” (Laborem Exercens, 3). The basic thesis of the document’s criticism of the essence of capitalism is enunciated in terms of “the principle of the priority of labor over capital ” (ibid., 12):

“This principle directly concerns the process of production: In this process labor is always a primary efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of means of production, remains a mere instrument or instrumental cause” [ibid.].

“Further consideration of this question should confirm our conviction of the priority of human labor over what in the course of time we have grown accustomed to calling capital” [ibid.].

“We must emphasize and give prominence to human primacy in the production process, the primacy of humankind over things. Everything contained in the concept of capital in the strict sense is only a collection of things” [ibid., 13].

The social teaching of the church no longer held that work can be set in confrontation with capital or detached from it as an independent factor or aspect on the very level of production itself. Rerum Novarum had held: “Neither capital can subsist without labor, nor labor without capital” (no. 14). Now we are taught instead:

“This consistent image, in which the principle of the primacy of person over things is strictly preserved, was broken up in human thought. The break occurred in such a way that labor was separated from capital and set in opposition to it, and capital was set in opposition to labor, as though they were two impersonal forces, two production factors juxtaposed in the same “economistic” perspective” [Laborem Exercens, 13].

All capital is work. The creative source of wealth, of all wealth or value, is work , not capital. On the other hand, as we have seen, John Paul II basically accepts socialism: “In consideration of human labor and of common access to the goods meant for humankind, one cannot exclude the socialization, in suitable conditions, of certain means of production” (Laborem Exercens, 14). But now there is more: socialism is criticized internally. Instead of being criticized from without, as before, it is corrected from within, as I indicated:

“We can speak of socializing only when the subject character of society is ensured, that is to say, when on the basis of their work all persons are fully entitled to consider themselves part- owners of the great workbench at which they are working with everyone else” [Laborem Exercens, 14].

“If it is to be rational and fruitful, any socialization of the means of production must …ensure that in this kind of system also persons can preserve their awareness of working ‘for themselves'” [ibid., 15].

Go back Continue Reading

keith michael estrada

Pope Francis

Socialism

Previous Post

October 5, 2015

Polish Gay Prelate Charamsa Sells Out Both Catholicism & Gay Rights

Next Post

October 7, 2015 EXCLUSIVE: Kenneth L. Woodward's Rapid-Fire Reflections on Francis in America

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for "confession" to a priest?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Methodists Baptists Presbyterians Catholics