Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 11
February 12, 1960
NUMBER 39, PAGE 8-9b

Communism And Catholicism

Luther W. Martin, St. James, Missouri

Communism from Russia, and Catholicism from Rome, are in opposition to an open study of the issues and doctrines upon which they are built. Neither ideology permits the freedom of thought, of speech or of worship. It is this very fact that enables Communism to gain such a foot-hold in predominantly Catholic countries, such as Italy, France, Argentina, and possibly Cuba.

The Roman Church has been quite out-spoken in her opposition to Communism, because her hierarchy recognizes that the same blind, unquestioning loyalty, and generally unswerving fealty which is exacted of her faithful, can very easily become the means of producing a similar puppet populace for the purposes of the Kremlin.

Communism has never made the head-way in non-Catholic countries that it has in the Catholic-dominated nations, due to this great similarity of the philosophies of the philosophies of Catholicism and Communism:

1. Catholicism and Communism are both undemocratic in structure.

2. Catholicism and Communism both prefer the union of church and state.

3. Catholicism and Communism both tend to deify their leaders.

4. Catholicism and Communism both oppose free public schools.

5. Catholicism and Communism both have used violence in accomplishing their goals.

6. Catholicism and Communism suppress freedom of thought, speech, and worship.

7. Catholicism and Communism both have foreign temporal rulers, to which their respective followers must pay homage: the Kremlin at Moscow, and the Vatican at Rome.

From the "Catholic Dictionary" by Attwater, (page 152) we copy the following:

"Distributism: The theory that the political, economic, and personal freedom proper to man without distinction of class or race can only be maintained when property in the means of production is widely distributed. Distributors hold that large concentrations of wealth or property are bad, and they seek to promote the revival of ownership of land, workshops, etc., by individuals and are generally opposed to monopolies and amalgamations. They hold that the 'smaller-holder', small work-shop, shop-keeper, the peasant and the artist-craftsman are the normal men that Capitalism (the rule of the money-lender) and Industrialism (the rule of the machine) can be deliberately undermined and gradually abolished. Distributism has no religious affiliation but its theory is claimed to be in special harmony with Catholic teaching as to the nature of man his needs." (Emphasis mine, L.W.M.)

Note, please, that this quotation is from a "Catholic Dictionary", and indicates that "capitalism and industrialism can be deliberately undermined and gradually abolished" according to this theory which is thought by some to be "in special harmony with Catholic teaching." Catholicism tries (and succeeds frequently) to exert her pressure through economic, social, and political methods, while Communism also seeks to abolish Capitalism and Industrialism through the same methods with perhaps one additional means, namely revolution.

From another Catholic publication, "God In Society" (pages 13, 14):

"There is no best form of government. There is no best form of society. Because Americans want the democratic form of government, does not prove it the best form; nor does it mean that people in the world must adopt it, in order to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Democracy is not the only right of government, the only way of peace, the only path to freedom. The way of peace and freedom is the way of justice securing the common welfare; the way of good-will expressed in cooperation of all classes in the State, under whatever form of government the people of the State may choose."

The author of the above statement fails to recognize the Import of his last clause . . . . "whatever form of government the people of the State may choose." We have yet to hear of a dictatorship or totalitarian form of government wherein the choice of government is left to the people. Yet, in a democracy, that is exactly what the people are privileged to do.

Our Saviour taught "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32.) "Sanctify them through thy truth; Thy word is truth." (John 17:17) And "the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they searched the scriptures daily.. " (Acts 17:11)

Note On Senator Kennedy

Senator John F. Kennedy, aspirant for the White House, has used the Congressional Record (a United States Government publication) to speak against the "heresies" of Lutheranism and Calvinism. The Record of January 17, 1956, prints in full the text of an address delivered by the "Most Reverend John J. Wright, Bishop of Worcester." This pro-Catholic and anti-Protestant diatribe is listed in the appendix of the Congressional Record as "Extension of Remarks of Hon. John F. Kennedy."

Now, we have no objection if Senator Kennedy wishes to trumpet his Roman Catholic religion, but we do firmly object and oppose his use of a government publication, printed at the tax-payers' expense, which and in which to promote the interests of the Roman Church. The "remarks" fill two pages of the Record, but here are a few sample quotations to demonstrate the nature of the speech:

"So many of the heresies which have wounded our Holy Mother, the Church, and robbed her of so many of her children, have been voluntarist heresies, anti-intellectual in their roots and pretensions

"From the `stat pro ration voluntas' of Luther and the 'Fides fiducialis" of Lutheranism, through the blind fatalism of Calvin and the perverse austerities of Jansenism .... "

"The heresies which have divided the Christian flock in these last four centuries have been chiefly voluntarist and anti-intellectual." (Appendix, pages 407-409.)

We repeat, Senator Kennedy has the right and freedom in this country to oppose any and all religious groups; but we certainly cannot endorse his use of a government publication through which to push the Catholic cause at the expense of all the people.