The Godless Roots of Socialism

CATHERINE RUTH PAKALUK

WHAT IS IT ABOUT SOCIALISM? About the Author It seems that the arguments against it, no matter how finely tuned, have to be made over and over again in every generation. It pops up in one nation faster than it can be put down in another. The sons of men who fought against it frequently grow up to fight for it. In some places, it is the fashion of the youth and, in others, the fashion Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, PhD, is assistant of the old. And although Pius professor of social research and economic thought at the Catholic University of America XI declared in May 1931, “Religious and coauthor (with Trent Horn) of Can A socialism, Christian socialism, are Catholic Be A Socialist? The Answer is No— contradictory terms; no one can be Here’s Why (Catholic Answers Press, 2019, available at Catholic.com and at Amazon). at the same time a good Catholic She lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with her and a true socialist,” we continue to husband, philosopher Pakaluk, and find arguments in favor of socialism, eight children. and even outright communism, published by Catholics. For instance, in July 2019, the Jesuit magazine described socialist congresswoman America published a feature-length from New York, is the “future of the article titled, “The Catholic Case for .” Communism.” And just last year, Just what is going on here? Hasn’t in July of 2020, the executive editor socialism been tried and found of the National Catholic Reporter wanting? Hasn’t it been repudiated published a piece declaring that by the example of the world’s most Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the self- notoriously evil regimes, including

volume vii, issue i Lenin and Stalin’s Soviet Union THE SPIRITUAL ROOT OF (the USSR, or the Union of Soviet SOCIALISM: GODLESSNESS Socialist Republics), Hitler’s Third Reich (“Nazi” is an abbreviation for In his 1983 Templeton Address, National Socialists), Mao’s China Alexander Solzhenitsyn maintained and the present-day CCP (Chinese that “the principal trait of the entire Communist Party, working for the twentieth century,” and the cause socialist revolution), and many more of its many conflagrations, was that horrific examples? Why doesn’t this “Men have forgotten God.” Although “specter,” as Marx himself called it, Solzhenitsyn’s critique is well- go away for good? known, less so is the fact that Pope In general, socialism refers to Pius XI penned nearly the same the set of philosophical, political, words six decades earlier in his and economic theories that extol first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei communal ownership of property Consilio: “Because men have forsaken and the confiscation of private God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk property to be disposed of by the to the depths of evil.” state. Communism (with a large “C” Writing in 1922, after the horrors or a small “c”) refers to those political of the Great War (1914-1918), the ideologies that give to socialism a Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (1917), specific political form aligned with and the Mexican Revolution (1910- Marxist-Hegelian theories of class 1920), Pius asked whether we could struggle. Therefore, all communists not find a “more profound cause are socialists, though some socialists for the present-day conditions.” He are not communists. In what follows, located the trouble precisely in the I will generally treat socialism and atheistic state and hostility to God— communism interchangeably, since especially in the areas of family and socialism is the broader category to education: which all communism belongs. But It was a quite general desire that I am on safe ground as a student of both our laws and our governments the social teaching of the Church. should exist without recognizing The have not carved out God or Jesus Christ, on the theory a special exception for forms of that all authority comes from men, socialism that are not communist. not from God. […] Legislation was Any form of socialism that is true to passed which did not recognize that its philosophical roots is treated with either God or Jesus Christ had any the same extreme censure by the rights over marriage, an erroneous popes. In delineating the differences view which debased matrimony to between communism and socialism, the level of a mere civil contract. for instance, Pius XI wrote: “If […] Added to all this God and Jesus Socialism, like all errors, contains Christ, as well as His doctrines, were some truth (which, moreover, the banished from the school. As a sad but Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), inevitable consequence, the school it is based nevertheless on a theory of became not only secular and non- human society peculiar to itself and religious, but openly atheistic and irreconcilable with true Christianity.” anti-religious.

2 | volume vii, issue i As we now know, the horrors that opened the twentieth century, despite Pius XI’s lament, did not lead This article is brought to repentance and conversion but to to you by an increasing spirit of death. Over the next half-century, almost without pause, wars raged around the globe, KATHLEEN and nations adopted, sometimes with great fanfare, deeply misguided MILLER policies from a moral and spiritual point of view: divorce, contraception, Please join us in abortion, and euthanasia, in some praying for her instances even declaring these intentions and policies to represent fundamental rights “at the heart of liberty.” That thanking God for her is why, when an exiled prisoner of generosity. conscience from communist Russia had the opportunity to make one To learn more about sponsoring great statement before the nations of Principles articles and online classes, the free West, he offered no words of contact Wilson at 540-551-9199. 1909 British Conservative Party poster. celebration but rather a rebuke and a warning: “Men have forgotten God; attend worship services, and only a that is why all this has happened.” little more than a third (37%) report Today, almost forty years after attending services weekly. No one Solzhenitsyn’s address and a can seriously contend that the century after Pius’ admonition, an United States as a whole is becoming honest assessment of public and more mindful of God. If we define private life would give little ground a social category of “separation for encouragement. The United from God” or “godlessness” that States had long been regarded as an includes atheists, agnostics, the exception to the trend of secularity religiously unaffiliated, and all those in the West, especially as compared who attend worship services only to Europe. But the Christian share occasionally, then more than 60% of of the U.S. population declined 8 U.S. adults fall into this category. The percentage points, from 78.4% to principal crisis for many nations in 70.6%, in the span of time that Obama the twentieth century has become was president. Eight percentage so for the United States too in the points in eight years! During the twenty-first. same interval, the percentage of What has all this to do with U.S. adults describing themselves socialism? To understand, we might as religiously unaffiliated—atheist, turn again to Pius XI who reigned agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” from 1922 to 1939. The last major the “nones”—increased more than encyclical of his Pontificate, Divini 6 points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. Redemptoris (1937, on Atheistic Further, roughly a third of U.S. adults Communism), dealt with exactly this say that they “seldom” or “never” question. The Popes of the Leonine

| 3 with its consequent violent hate and destruction takes on the aspects of a crusade for the progress of humanity. On the other hand, all other forces whatever, as long as they resist such systematic violence, must be annihilated as hostile to the human race. Note how much today these words seem eerily prophetic, as we recall the year 2020, so full of tragic violence in our American cities, Pope Pius XI justified everywhere by the banner era sometimes used socialism of progress. More striking still, Pius and communism interchangeably, XI did not expect the evils of his day though communism specifically to be resolved. characterizes those movements Nor can it be said that these atrocities based on Marxist theories of class are a transitory phenomenon, the struggle. The Pope singles out usual accompaniment of all great especially the practice of violent revolutions, the isolated excesses revolution, the overthrow of social common to every war. No, they order, the persecution and abolition are the natural fruit of a system of the Church, the usurpation of which lacks all inner restraint. […] family life and economics by the Tear the very idea of God from state, and the establishment of the hearts of men, and they tyrannical regimes hostile to what are necessarily urged by their Pius called the civitas humana, or passions to the most atrocious humane society. barbarity. [Emphasis mine.] This, The doctrine of modern Communism, unfortunately, is what we now which is often concealed under the behold. For the first time in history, most seductive trappings, is in we are witnessing a struggle, cold- substance based on the principles blooded in purpose and mapped out of dialectical and historical to the least detail, between man materialism previously advocated and “all that is called God” (c.f. 2 by Marx, of which the theoricians Thessalonians 4). Communism is by of bolshevism claim to possess the its nature anti-religious. It considers only genuine interpretation. In such religion as “the opiate of the people” a doctrine, as is evident, there is no because the principles of religion room for the idea of God […] The which speak of a life beyond the Communists claim that the conflict grave dissuade the proletariat from which carries the world towards its the dream of a Soviet paradise which final synthesis can be accelerated is of this world. by man. Hence, they endeavor to Referencing St. Paul’s second letter sharpen the antagonisms which to the Thessalonians, Pius XI calls arise between the various classes atheistic communism a competitor of society. Thus, the class struggle in this world to “all that is called

4 | volume vii, issue i God.” So, the root inclination to Orthodox theologian who wants us socialism is godlessness, which to “please relax about socialism” rejects the principles of religion and has also become a universalist, seeks to establish paradise on earth. rejecting the Christian dogma of Yes, the Popes insist that socialism hell. Little wonder that our Christian is predicated on philosophical republic in the twenty-first century, mistakes about the nature of less mindful of God than ever, now man, of property, and of economic suffers direct calls for socialism from life. Yes, good economists insist candidates holding and running that socialism can be rejected on for the highest public offices in the theoretical, empirical, and historical land. And little wonder that we see grounds. But the primary impulse manifested today many of the same of socialism is evil, rooted in sin: marks of the communist regimes of envy, greed, and dishonesty, just for the past and present: suppression starters. of thought, of the Church, and of One upshot of Pius’ position is the family; usurpation of economic that the temporal and the spiritual life by the state; and the general are far more intimately related overthrow of social order. than we commonly suppose. It is I began by asking, what is up not possible to say that there is a with socialism? Why does it resist realm of spiritual life that inhabits being wholly discredited by its the heart and soul and that such miserable failures? Why is it judged a realm is divorced from, or lacks by its stated goals and not by consequence, in the temporal actual performance? The reason for order. Rather, there are direct and this, with the light of faith, is that indirect effects of true Christianity socialism is a product of atheism, of in society—and the lack thereof— being unattached from God and from so beautifully expressed in the Holy Mother Church. In short, it is fragment of the letter to Diognetus an inclination arising from sin in the in the second century A.D.: “What human heart, temptations playing the soul is in the body, Christians “on the poor man’s envy of the rich.” are to the world.” It very much There is a lot packed into that line. matters whether and how much we You do not have to be “poor” to fall are connected to God—not merely prey. Any human difference can give for our own souls but also for the rise to envy. Cain killed Abel out of common good of humanity. envy. Sin rejects the differences that “Tear the very idea of God from are part of human reality and part of the hearts of men,” Pius XI says, and the economy of salvation. Ultimately, “the most atrocious barbarity” will sin rejects what God has offered and ensue. Not all barbarity is socialism, seeks to build the world in its own but all socialism—because it is image, with its own past and its own godless—leads to barbarity. Little future. Thus, contra mundum, the wonder that Alexandria Ocasio- Church stands prepared to condemn Cortez denounces our Catholic not only socialism, but even the in public. Little wonder that inclinations that give rise to it, as Bentley Hart, the Eastern disordered.

| 5 ABOUT PRINCIPLES Animated by the joyful, lived experience of the faith, Principles draws on the fruits of an authentically Catholic liberal arts education to explore the ideas necessary to live a fully integrated Catholic life: one that upholds the value of human dignity, the role of virtue in private and public spheres, and the centrality of charity in both thought and action. We envision a Church—and a watching world—that embraces sound reason rooted in a robust faith.

RESPONDING TO publishing Rerum Novarum gave SOCIALISM: THE MISSION the Church “citizenship status” as it OF THE CHURCH were, amid the changing realities of public life, and this standing would The Second Vatican Council be more fully confirmed later on. rightly declared that atheism was Looking back to Rerum Novarum, “among the most serious problems we can find where Pope Leo stakes of this age” and maintained that the this claim. After rejecting the errors remedy to atheism is the Church of the socialists, he offers “to show herself, “for it is the function of the where the remedy [to the problem of Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who the working classes] sought for must renews and purifies her ceaselessly, be found.” to make God the Father and His We approach the subject with Incarnate Son present and in a confidence, … for no practical sense visible.” In this light, since solution of this question will be socialism is a byproduct of atheism, found apart from the intervention or separation from God, the answer of religion and of the Church. ... to socialism is the Church herself. A We affirm without hesitation spiritual problem needs a spiritual that all the striving of men will solution. But this bears some further be in vain if they leave out the explication. The example of John Church. [Emphasis mine.] It is the Paul the Great could not be more Church that insists, on the authority important for us today. of the Gospel, upon those teachings Commenting on Pope Leo’s whereby the conflict can be brought teaching in Rerum Novarum, John to an end, or rendered, at least, Paul reminds us that the social far less bitter; the Church uses her magisterium is not an exercise in efforts not only to enlighten the mere human prudence. mind, but to direct by her precepts In Pope Leo XIII’s time such a concept the life and conduct of each and all. of the Church’s right and duty was Thus, the special role of the Church far from being commonly admitted. in correcting calls for socialism Indeed, a two-fold approach is to bring to bear the Gospel in prevailed: one directed to this world the world, the integration of the and this life, to which faith ought Church into the life of society. Leo to remain extraneous; the other pleads that “The striving of men directed towards a purely other- will be in vain if they leave out the worldly salvation, which neither Church.” The social magisterium enlightens nor directs existence aims, therefore, to sanctify social on earth. The Pope’s approach in realities and, if not to end bitterness,

6 | volume vii, issue i to make it “far less bitter.” She does best of my abilities. But I have spent this principally through her mission the better part of three decades to souls: grace! The Church cannot be observing, with great disgust, that left out. The life of grace transforms the facts have not been enough, that hearts, fosters virtue, and impels powerful forces have systematically men and women to lives of heroism prevented “good science” from and sacrifice, accepting the burdens reaching scientific publications and that cannot be avoided and seeking from being cited and promoted. remedies through truth, freedom, I have watched, in almost every and ingenuity for those burdens that subfield of my discipline, a distortion bear improvement. of the facts to meet the goals. As a young student of economics These frustrations have led me to in the late 1990s, I believed very much refine my youthful idealism about that getting it right about the facts of science. Neither economics, nor any economic growth would lead swiftly other science, is a neutral or stable to a reversal in the population- ground because it cannot evaluate control policies that were by then its own assumptions. Science only already widely practiced. I believed becomes good when it cooperates that good science would lead in with a complete picture of the “truth that direction and that we should about God and man,” a picture that it have confidence that the findings cannot itself supply. of honest research would not Economic disputes, like those contradict the laws of God. Today I within medicine, public health, and still believe that. And in my research, politics, always reflect deeper I still aim to do “good science” to the disputes about the meaning of human life and the mystery of reality. Thus, it is one thing to understand where socialism goes wrong—to see how it makes fatal errors. But to counter the full force PRODUCTION MANAGER and power of socialism, we need Adam Wilson more than to unpack the mistakes. I offer these reflections, therefore, as ART DIRECTOR an apostle for good economics, but Niall O’Donnell as an apostle, I hope much more for

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