From the bulletin of October 4, 2020
Our next pope is Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903. He wrote the most encyclicals of any pope and was also responsible for laying the foundation of what people call Catholic Social Teaching. This refers to the collection of Church teachings on justice, government, business, and other day to day social realities. From the very start, Leo XIII made social ills a particular focus of his pontificate.
His first encyclical is titled Inscrutabili Dei Consilio: On the Evils of Society and focuses on the fact that human society is meant to be based on certain moral truths. He laments government corruption in general and then highlights that several governments were rejecting the public influence of the Church and either taking away her rights or undermining her ability to carry out charitable works in their respective countries. Coupled with this was a growing trend of society seeing faith as an obstacle to progress and the Church as an obstacle to a good society. As always, this included rumors about how much the Church has held the world back. In response, Leo XIII highlights some key moments in history where Popes and bishops have intervened to help society at large, like when Leo the Great (different Leo, 440-461 A.D.) stopped Attila the Hun from attacking and destroying Rome. Leo XII also pointed out that a just society requires it citizens to be virtuous, which is something the Church helps with by teaching people how to live a virtuous life. The letter concludes by calling for a renewed respect for the Church’s universal spiritual authority and by asking bishops around the world to continue their work of uniting the Church and proclaiming the Gospel.
Leo XIII’s next encyclical titled Quod Apostolici Muneris: On Socialism zeros in on the specific problems with the philosophies of socialism, communism, and nihilism. The trouble starts with the fact that people who claimed to follow these philosophies started by saying that all religion and faith needed to be set aside for human reason to make real progress in society. So, inasmuch as these philosophies were deliberately atheist, they were incompatible with the Catholic Faith. These ideologies also hold to a false idea of equality that tries to take away the diversity and structure that naturally occurs in the world. As such, they hated all ideas of hierarchy like what we have in the Church. While the Church does teach that human beings are equal in dignity, it does not teach that everyone is the same in the role they play, the responsibilities they have, or the power they use to carry out their responsibilities. With this came strange ideas about dismantling the family as if children belonged to the state more than to their parents. Finally, socialism and communism included the idea that no one had the right to own private property and so everything should be controlled by the government, which would then give to each person what they need. They often used passages from the New Testament to support this idea. In response, Leo XIII pointed to the Ten Commandments, which forbid stealing and coveting, and to the way scripture constantly assumes that private ownership is possible and good. Jesus himself reinforced the ten commandments and often used the example of land owners in his parables without ever condemning their ownership of property.
At the same time, Pope Leo XIII was clear about the Christian obligation to care for the poor and that this includes a responsibility for making a society that cares for the poor. Leo revisits the themes of communism and socialism several times during his time as pope. As he develops his teaching on this, he never backs down from the truth that private property is a natural right and that denying this right is a heresy, a contradiction of the teaching of Scripture and Tradition. He also is careful to put that right into it’s proper context. Private property is not an absolute right and it does not justify hoarding, greed, or neglect for those in need. As we’ll see later, Leo is also quite concerned about the excesses of capitalism and unjust working conditions. Both republican and democrats could learn a lot from him and neither one should be able to read his writings and walk away without being challenged in their beliefs.
Finally, it needs to be said that Pope Leo XIII does explicitly condemn “socialism,” but that he uses that word in a very specific way. He focuses particularly on the atheism and denial of private property. In more recent times, people use the word “socialism” in a different way. Today, there are people who call themselves “socialist,” but who actually agree that people have a right to private property and that God exists. So, we need to be careful. We cannot be lazy and automatically reject an idea because it uses that word. When having a conversation about society, it is probably best to avoid broad labels and focus on what each person actually means.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert