Socialism & the Vatican

The socialists wrongly assume the right of property to be of mere human invention . . . and, preaching up the community of goods, declare that ... all may with impunity seize upon the possessions and usurp the rights of the wealthy. More wise and profitably, the Church recognizes the existence of inequality amongst men.

--Leo XIII, Dec. 28, 1878

No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true socialist.

--Pius XI, May 15, 1931

From socialism's earliest beginnings down through the years to the present, the Roman Catholic Church has branded the Marxist doctrine of socialism with its disapproval. That disapproval became such a political reflex that Catholic parties often seemed to be identified with opposition to social progress itself. The effort to correct this impression, plus the urgent menace of Communism, gave birth, in post-World War II in Europe, to the surprisingly successful Christian Democratic movements in Italy, Western Germany, Belgium and France.

The Flowering. In all these parties, there was a planned detachment from church direction, a deliberate effort to accept collaboration with progressive, socialist and even specifically anticlerical parties. During the first ten postwar years, Christian Democracy had a great flowering. Today, only in Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's West Germany, where they are the party of the center, are the Christian Democrats still riding high.

In Italy the Christian Democrats still dominate, but with no clear majority; the party suffers from immobility because it includes too many political shadings from left to right, unified only by Catholicism. The West German party, in a nation that is less than 50% Roman Catholic, has shrewdly salted its basically Catholic leadership with Protestants. In France the Catholic M.R.P. Party, with its "good Europeans" Georges Bidault and Robert Schuman, is a declining force because the supersensitive issue of state aid to Catholic schools has split it from its Socialist allies.

Accustomed to moving surely in countries where Catholicism's dominance is unchallenged, but more cautiously elsewhere, the church has lately been heard with increasing force on the old subject of the church and socialism. In recent weeks, Catholic functionaries have come to the aid of the party in three countries:

West Germany. The Bishop of Muen-ster, Dr. Michael Keller, last month told Catholic workers that as Catholics they should consider themselves prohibited from voting Socialist. "It is a question of conscience, not one of political judgment," he said. Though Adenauer's Christian Democratic leaders privately welcomed the effect the bishop's pronouncement would have on rural and women voters, they were careful not to endorse the bishop's views publicly: they do not want to alienate Protestant voters in the fall's national elections.

Belgium. Cardinal Van Roey. Primate of Belgium, three weeks ago struck back at the Socialist-Liberal government coalition, which has cut subsidies to Catholic schools. He sent a message of instruction to all Belgian priests: "When you are asked if a believer can in conscience, in the forthcoming general elections, vote for a party which combats or menaces religious or moral interests, the answer must be that this cannot be justified and cannot be permitted without grave danger to his conscience."

The Netherlands. The Catholic Archbishopric reiterated a mandate issued three years before, when the Catholic People's Party became alarmed over the inroads made among Catholic voters by the Labor (socialist) Party. Warned the mandate: "Whoever follows the development without prejudice must fear that our political power and influence will crumble. It is not permissible for a Catholic to be a member of socialist associations, such as The Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions, or to visit socialist gatherings regularly, to read the socialist press regularly, or to listen to the socialist radio network regularly." Those who defied the mandate were threatened with refusal of the sacraments. If an offender died unrepentant, he could be refused church burial.

Explaining this new insistence on an old position, a high Vatican official was candid. "Any time we collaborate with the socialists, it is to combat the worse evil of Communism. Whenever there is a danger that socialism may attain its program, we are against it. Now in West Germany, Holland and Belgium, socialism, instead of being an added strength against Communism, has turned into a strength-sapping preacher of neutralism. Those who vote for it, vote against a Christian concept of society."

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