"Roman Catholic and Christian Socialism author John Cort gave talks at Catholic parishes where he read excerpts from papal encyclicals and asked the audience to guess their author. The most common response was Karl Marx." Thank you to U.S. Catholic magazine for publishing this article by our editor.
"Pope Francis has consistently made the case that Catholicism and a socialist agenda go hand in hand. In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) Francis writes, “The Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property.” Francis has called capitalism “terrorism against all humanity” and used his Easter 2020 message to call for a universal basic income. This theme is also echoed in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship).
St. John Henry Newman describes the evolution of encyclicals over time as the “development of doctrine.” On the subject of socialism that development continues, informed by Catholics in the United States who’ve observed how European nations influenced by democratic socialism have embraced universal health care and broad access to higher education, along with increased worker protections and ambitious programs for supported housing, child care, and income guarantees.
These socialist-themed reforms have fulfilled the mandates of Catholic social teaching far more effectively than anything more capitalist nations such as the United States have managed."
The full article can be read here