Socialism - A Selection of Papal Quotes and Church Teaching

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Let’s see. Pope Benedict XVI vs an article from CA. All due respect…
 
In addition, could you please address my other posts in this thread? Like the one where I mention socialization of some means of production etc.?
 
It’s not a vs situation. It’s all important, and worth taking together. It’s worth a read. We are the body of Christ, we shouldn’t be divided, and definitely not over an issue like socialism.
 
Agreed. But Catholic social teaching is varied as well. Would you respond as positively if someone plumbed Catholic social documents to show that capitalism in its pure form is condemned? It wouldn’t be hard to do.
 
100% true. The evils of capitalism are often denounced by the Church, and I fully agree with that. Not capitalism full stop though, which is the case with socialism. Moreso the extremes that capitalism can go to. Socialism is not condemned in its extreme forms, but in all its forms.
And I would be quite happy if someone wanted to show Church teaching on the evils of capitalism. I’m a Catholic first, not a conservative or capitalist. 🙂
This post was just for a specific topic - showing the Church’s teaching on socialism. We can’t discuss everything, all the time!
 
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I’m sorry I misunderstood. And I’m sorry if it seemed I was subjecting you to a purity test. Not my intention.
 
No problem! 🙂 I know some can tend towards extremes on this issue, so I understand.
 
I think I could defend these 6 principles as underlying Catholic teaching on the right ordering of society:
  1. Economic systems that restrict the circumstances for mankind to exercise his God given gift of free will are evil.
  2. Economic systems that promote the circumstances for mankind to exercise his God given gift of free will are good.
  3. Political systems that usurp the authority of the competent smaller units of society to the larger units are evil.
  4. Political systems that preserve the authority of the competent smaller units of society from usurpation by the larger units are good.
  5. Economic or political systems that do not provide for the common good of all citizens are evil.
  6. Economic or political systems that do provide for the common good of all citizens are good.
 
How is any of this squared with the learned view that the Twelve Apostles lived together in what could be called a socialist commune?

This sounds more like political hopefulness than theological reasoning. There are papal quotes and church teachings supporting monarchy as the best form of government, too.
 
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Not really. The Catholic Church has condemned socialism - therefore if an economic theory or system exists which is acceptable for Catholics, even if it should contain the word “socialist”, it isn’t actually socialism. Make sense?
 
sealabeag said:
Not really. The Catholic Church has condemned socialism - therefore if an economic theory or system exists which is acceptable for Catholics, even if it should contain the word “socialist”, it isn’t actually socialism. Make sense?
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No, it doesn’t make sense.
 
Anyone who would argue that the early apostles communal living was the same as socialism or communism, in my opinion, doesn’t understand either of the latter. But I didn’t really intend for this thread to be a debate about socialism, just to show the Church teaching. Which I accept.

Oh and as for monarchy, I just might agree with them… 😜
 
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It does, actually. We probably just disagree on the issue at hand.
 
I’m sorry, I think that’s actually circular reasoning. I don’t know too much about politics, but I think most forms of Socialism share enough in common with each other that they can be called socialism, no matter what the Church has to say about it.
The example my teacher used for circular reasoning was saying something like “New York is the best city in the world, because in all the cities of the world, there is no better city than New York.” That kind of sounds like the reasoning you’re applying here.
 
Agree to disagree. My argument is based in my acceptance of the authority of the Catholic Church though, which, if you don’t accept, would probably make it seem like circular reasoning. 🙂
 
(・・。)ゞ I’m Catholic though… it still looks like circular reasoning to me. Isn’t the point of Catholic Answers company to do Apologetics using reasons other than “the Church says so?” That’s why I listened to the show.

I looked up Socialism because you made me curious, and a lot of the reading you’ve posted here doesn’t seem to account for a few versions of Democratic Socialism. It’s a pretty long article, and I admit I didn’t read the whole thing and some of it definitely went over my head a bit, but from what I can understand there’s versions of Socialism that don’t violate the principles that you’ve described. (Stuff like market socialism and the Third Way.)

 
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