Slick video doesn’t hold true to popes’ politics

Someone sent me an anti-Obama video claiming that the president wants to make our country into a socialistic state and that the enemy of the White House is the Catholic Church. The video presenter claims that all the popes since Leo XIII (1891) have issued encyclicals condemning socialism.

Unfortunately, this is only a half-truth. What the popes have consistently condemned are the abuses of political or economic systems. Catholic social teaching in these encyclicals (which a few people have read) has criticized the abuses of modern social and political ideologies both of the left and of the right. The popes have condemned the abuses of libertarianism, communism, atheism and socialism, as well as capitalism.

Socialism has become such a “loaded” word that it might be helpful use the dictionary to define its meaning. Some people want to equate socialism with communism. However, socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the early Church practiced socialism. “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common… There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:32-35)

While this practice did not become the norm, religious orders of priests, brothers and nuns have been practicing socialism for the past 2000 years. They work; they bring home a paycheck, it’s deposited in a common bank account and the money is distributed according to the needs of the individuals.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2009 encyclical “Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth),” decried “corruption and illegality” among economic and political elites in both rich and poor countries. He told financiers they must rediscover the ethical foundation of their activity and stop abusing savers. He wants a radical rethinking of economics so that profit is not the primary motive but “an ethics that is people-centered.” In other words, all workers should receive a living wage.

Benedict notes that economic “inequalities are on the increase” across the globe. He does not accept the trickle-down theory, which says that all boats will rise with the economic tide. Benedict condemns the “scandal of glaring inequalities” and sees a role for government in the redistribution of wealth.

The pope also disagrees with those who believe that the economy should be free of government regulation. An unregulated economy “shielded from ‘influences’ of a moral character has led humans to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way,” he writes. This has “led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise.”

The Church supports private property and teaches “everyone has by nature the right to possess property.” The right to private property is not absolute, however, and is subjected to the common good. The state can redistribute wealth from those who have unjustly hoarded it.

They have called the Catholic Church’s teaching on economic justice the church’s best-kept secret. So, when we receive any anti-Obama or anti-Republican propaganda, we should investigate the truth of what is being said before we send it on. Just because it looks professional, does not mean it is true.

“Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is still one of the Ten Commandments.