🏴🚩pator🚩🏴It's annoying that the only reference to Communism/Socialism in the Catechism acts as if the totalitarianism of the USSR was Socialism. It doesn't refer to what the Church's stance on the social ownership of the MoP is or to the democratization of production and society. 2426 is crying out for Socialism! It states that the purpose of production, the purpose of economic activity is to provide for the human community, not for profit. As in, PRODUCTION FOR NEED NOT PROFIT. https://tinyurl.com/yd3ca5fh
ofc the next section, 2427, has some reactionary BS where it says that those who don't work should not eat. But then, 2428 states that a person shouldn't be reified into merely a thing-that-labors. People don't exist to labor, like it is assumed under Capitalism. "Work is for man, not man for work." The Catechism, like the Catholic Tradition, seesaws between purest sweet ambrosia and bitter reactionary bullshit.
2403 boggles the mind. 2402 confirms that the earth was given as a 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙤𝙣 treasure to mankind, but then 2403 tries to argue that private ownership does not contradict this, so long as the destination of those goods remains the same. https://tinyurl.com/yccy4ekc So Capitalism is OK, so long as goods end up in the hands of everyone...
That's not what Capitalism is for, or intends to do. Goods (some of them) only end up in people's hand insofar that they destroy their spirits by engaging in alienating wage labor.
"the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise."
I really don't understand this. There's no argument for it. It's just stated, as if we should accept it as an article of faith. It's almost like...no...it couldn't be....
I really don't understand this. There's no argument for it. It's just stated, as if we should accept it as an article of faith. It's almost like...no...it couldn't be....
The Catechism clearly rejects both the excesses of Capitalism (without expressly rejecting Capitalism itself, it's important to note) and the totalitarianism of the USSR (while managing to mistakenly tar all forms of Socialism with the totalitarian label), wanting to support a kind of third-way between the two: Distributism. Its like Catholic Social Democracy, wanting private property to be as widely distributed as possible, seeing it as a guarantor of liberty.
Of course that last bit sounds like it comes straight from the mouth of an ancap, ffs.
It recognizes that Capitalism kinda sucks but then rejects any kind of radical change from the Capitalist system. I've got a better way. How about Socialism? My real point with this thread is that there exists certain Traditions within the Church, as well as scriptural justifications, for the common ownership of property, for the liberation of humanity from oppression. All it requires is a Church that is willing to actually realize it.
St. Joseph the Worker, St. Francis the People's Saint, I pray for your intercessions, that the Church can become a true People's Church, In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.