By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing - Leo XIII did not define socialism as “State ownership of the means of production,” but rather, as a philosophy that denies that the individual in his economic activity is prior to the State, and denies also that the family is a true society prior to the State. In particular, it denies the authority of the father, who, Leo says, has a claim over the resources of his household at least as weighty as the State’s... Leo grapples with socialism in several of his encyclicals. He clearly regards it as the great menacing problem of our time.