Why are Catholics against Communism?

[pcordero]

I mean, I thought an idea in Catholicism is to get out of consumerism and having a materialistic mentality, and isn’t the religious vow of poverty the same thing as communism?

 

[Warrior1979]

I mean, I thought an idea in Catholicism is to get out of consumerism and having a materialistic mentality, and isn’t the religious vow of poverty the same thing as communism?

I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the concept of working and sharing the goods. The problem is that communism as applied in practice is evil; basically a dictatorship of some type where nobody has any rights (religious, speech, etc.).

 

[Foresight]

Because Catholicism is a Religion, and communism forbids Religion.

God Bless

 

[puzzleannie]

I , and isn’t the religious vow of poverty the same thing as communism?

no, taking a vow of poverty as a professed religious is not the same thing as atheistic communism as a political and social system.

 

[St_Francis]

Because Catholicism is a Religion, and communism forbids Religion.

God Bless

No, not quite. The Catholic Church is against Communism because it goes against human nature and denies the dignity of man by not permitting people to keep their fruits of the labor.

Not permitting religion is part of it, but the Church would still be against Communism even if religion were allowed.

 

[brgregmack]

Communism is a form of utopianism. It takes God out of the picture and fails to recognize the weaknesses and imperfections of man.

 

[RyanK]

I mean, I thought an idea in Catholicism is to get out of consumerism and having a materialistic mentality, and isn’t the religious vow of poverty the same thing as communism?

Well, first off because it’s failed everytime. lol. Second off, like a previous poster said, Communism forbids religion and strongly promotes atheism.

 

[St_Francis]

I mean, I thought an idea in Catholicism is to get out of consumerism and having a materialistic mentality, and isn’t the religious vow of poverty the same thing as communism?

First of all, you don’t have to go communist to get away from consumerism and materialism…

Secondly, “communism” generally refers to the econo-political system in which socialism is achieved by revolution in a sort of mechanistic predestined end-of-humanity way and in which the government will cease to exist due to man’s having become perfected…

That is most certainly not what the religious life is about. The religious live in community and voluntarily vow themselves to poverty (and other things), but the religious life is more like a family in which ownership is held in common rather than Communism which is forced on everyone and is not at all like a family–in fact, Communists also try to destroy the family as well as loyalty to anything other than the state.

 

[MarcusAndreas]

We aren’t against communism, that’s what monasteries have been doing for centuries. Soviet Russia wasn’t a communist country, labor wasn’t from each according to his ability and reward to each according to his need. Read some Peter Maurin.

 

[GEddie]

You can’t be a Communist without denying God; that’s a deal breaker for the Church

 

[RyanK]

We aren’t against communism, that’s what monasteries have been doing for centuries. Soviet Russia wasn’t a communist country, labor wasn’t from each according to his ability and reward to each according to his need. Read some Peter Maurin.

Actually, we are against communism.

CCC #2425 The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism.”

 

[You]

Communism as practiced in Catholic Monasteries for the last 1500 years or so is different to Communist countries. The monasteries live a Christian system where none own anything. In this form of communism it is a voluntary system, everyone in the system freely chose to be there. If someone wanted to live a different system he or she would not enter that monastery, they could live their religion while operating political and commercial systems of their own choice. In Communist States all freedom of choice for every individual disappears. Choice of religious freedom, political systems and commercial systems is removed by force from all citizens, or comrades, as the case may be. Communism in monastic systems is a voluntary and free decision. It is not forced on all citizens of the State.

 

[JimG]

In addition to the Church’s philosophical opposition to communism because of its flawed view of human nature, this book might give a clue as to why it’s just bad for everyone.

 

[runningdude]

The Catholic Church is against any ideology, in theory or practice, that denies the dignity of man. This includes unfettered Capitalism, Communism, Fascism, etc. The Church teaches that there is a public responsibility to care for the poor, and to provide meaningful labor opportunities so that individuals may work to provide for their families.

As practiced, most regimes used communism and fascism as little more than a paper thin justification for denying these basic rights to their people - claiming to hold all property in trust for public benefit, while in actuality steeling it for themselves. Capitalist society is not without reproach either, such as when imperial Britain forced the Irish to produce cash crops for export instead of food staples for domestic consumption - this was supply and demand taken to its extreme conclusion.

The only form of government officially endorsed by the church is the kingdom governed by Christ Himself. Any other government will fall short. However, any government that provides for man’s basics basic rights is acceptable and must be followed by its citizens.

 

[GraceSofia]

From Centesimus annus (John Paul II)

1. Continuing our reflections, and referring also to what has been said in the Encyclicals Laborem exercens and Sollicitudo rei socialis, we have to add that the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. 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.

In contrast, from the Christian vision of the human person there necessarily follows a correct picture of society. According to *Rerum novarum *and the whole social doctrine of the Church, the social nature of man is not completely fulfilled in the State, but is realized in various intermediary groups, beginning with the family and including economic, social, political and cultural groups which stem from human nature itself and have their own autonomy, always with a view to the common good.

Marxism is a world view that only cares about materialism and denies the supernatural and man’s freedom. In the link below, go down to #7 for comparison of how religious orders practice vs Marxism.

catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0088.html

 

[JamestheOlder]

Communism as practiced in Catholic Monasteries for the last 1500 years or so is different to Communist countries. The monasteries live a Christian system where none own anything. In this form of communism it is a voluntary system, everyone in the system freely chose to be there. If someone wanted to live a different system he or she would not enter that monastery, they could live their religion while operating political and commercial systems of their own choice. In Communist States all freedom of choice for every individual disappears. Choice of religious freedom, political systems and commercial systems is removed by force from all citizens, or comrades, as the case may be. Communism in monastic systems is a voluntary and free decision. It is not forced on all citizens of the State.

Thank you for a correct comparison.

The Catholic Church is opposed to atheistic Communism, as practiced by Russia and China. It is NOT opposed to communism as practiced in monasteries and convents, and the type of communism that was practiced by the early Church, as described in Acts. We have a more secular communistic settlement in Southern Georgia, Koinoia, which honors Christ in every way. True Christian life means sharing (Matthew, 25, 31-46); true sharing is communism.

Definitions are important. Thanks for being precise.

 

[GraceSofia]

Well, first off because it’s failed everytime. lol.

And also atheist communist regimes such as the Soviet Union and China have killed over a hundred million of their own people.

 

[jerry_joseph]

There are lot of good things in communism such as their social views, anti materialism etc . But there are lot of evils in it such as denial of God and Church. More than 30 million christians massacared during communist rule in soviet union and eastern europe. More than 150000 priests where sent to death.
It is only an evil mixed with Good. Their main aim is to reduce the social infulence of christianity by deviating the people of Jesus (poor peoples who are always with jesus) from christian faith and to create a spiritual vaccum among christians, there by eastern mysticism and faiths can easily penetrate into the vacant minds of christians. While these socialists groups always tells that they are against all faiths , you can see public support giving by the leaders of these political parties to the leaders of eastern, muslim and pagan faiths …Why???. Just Think about that…

While communism tells only about the rights of a worker, it omits about the duties of a worker towards the company and society.

Capitalism is also a social evil. It aims to make maximum money at any cost only. It does not cares about the rights of a worker. It conciders worker as a machienery in their factories. They fails to view worker as a human being.

You can read social doctrine of church from catechism of catholic church.

vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8C.HTM

Both capitalism and communism are two sides of a same coin. Both shares some common characteristics.

While communism rejects the existence of God and does not allow freedom to religions , capitalism is also a practical atheism, There public practicing of religion especially christianity is a shameful matter in capitalist society. One is caring only about one’s happiness only. Family and Religious values does not have any place in this society.You can also see public support giving by capitalists leaders to eastern religions while regulating the christian faith.

You can also see that both capitalists and communist have a same voice in social matters such as abortion, birth control, denial of christian and family values ,destruction of christian faith etc

 

[TheRealJuliane]

And also atheist communist regimes such as the Soviet Union and China have killed over a hundred million of their own people.

Not counting all the aborted babies…China’s one-child policy…

 

[St_Francis]

Communism as practiced in Catholic Monasteries for the last 1500 years or so is different to Communist countries. The monasteries live a Christian system where none own anything. In this form of communism it is a voluntary system, everyone in the system freely chose to be there. If someone wanted to live a different system he or she would not enter that monastery, they could live their religion while operating political and commercial systems of their own choice. In Communist States all freedom of choice for every individual disappears. Choice of religious freedom, political systems and commercial systems is removed by force from all citizens, or comrades, as the case may be. Communism in monastic systems is a voluntary and free decision. It is not forced on all citizens of the State.

The word communism simply does not apply to religious life. It has also been a word applied to a socio-economo-political system along utopian lines; it was made up to describe that, and shortly thereafter appropriated by Maex and Lenin to describe their proposed system.

To equate religious life, which only has some superficial outer characteristics in common with the wicked and evil system is to equivocate, to set up a equivalence between a bad thing and a good thing so as to confuse people into thinking the bad thing is not all that bad.

From the beginning, Christian entry into community life has been completely voluntary. Annias and his wife did not die because they kept some of their proerty but because they loed about having done so.