Does Catholicism support socialism?
Answer:
No, the Catholic Church explicitly rejects socialism.
- 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 (Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno, 12.
- The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism” (Catechism, 2425).
- Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum explicitly rejects several main tenants of socialism.
Socialism severely curtails rights to private property. The Church, on the other hand, upholds the individual’s right to private property (Catechism, 2401).
