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By Matthew Plese, The Fatima Center, May 19, 2020
Matthew Plese is a traditional Catholic convert, and Dominican tertiary living in Chicago. He is an accountant and MBA business professional. Proficient in Catholic apologetics, he is president of CatechismClass.com and maintains his blog, A Catholic Life. He is also the author of various publications.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries” (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, October 22, 1945).
The Errors of Socialism
The Catholic Church has condemned Socialism in all its forms – so-called Christian Socialism as well as atheistic Socialism – without exception. But why? What is the error of Socialism? Is not Socialism about caring for the poor and eradicating evils like poverty? No, it is not.
Attacks on Private Property: Socialism advances the error that private property is not a human right but can be taken away from individuals by the state and given to others.
Violates Subsidiarity: Socialism, like Communism, violates the principle of subsidiarity. What does this mean? Pope Pius XI explains:
“Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them” (Quadragesimo Anno, 1931). ….
