Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, explained Catholic teaching in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Word on Fire ministry, criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for promising constituents \u201cthe warmth of collectivism\u201d in his Jan. 1 inaugural address.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who defeated two candidates<\/a> with nearly 51% of the vote in the November election, won on a democratic socialist platform. His plans include free buses, city-owned grocery stores, no-cost child care, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour, and freezing the rent for people in rent-stabilized apartments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,\u201d Mamdani said in his inaugural address<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause no matter what you eat, what language you speak, how you pray, or where you come from \u2014 the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0said in a post on X<\/a> that this line \u201ctook my breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCollectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least 100 million people in the last century,\u201d Bishop Barron said.<\/p>\n \u201cSocialist and communist forms of government around the world today \u2014 Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc. \u2014 are disastrous,\u201d he added. \u201cCatholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as \u2018rugged individualism.\u2019 In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, spare me the \u2018warmth of collectivism,\u2019\u201d Bishop Barron concluded.<\/p>\n Catholic Teaching on Socialism<\/p>\n Both socialism and communism have been condemned by many popes, first by Pope Pius IX in his 1849 encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum<\/a>, just one year after Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n The foundation of Catholic social teaching rests on Pope Leo XIII\u2019s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the encyclical, Leo denounced<\/a> socialism and communism, and also condemned poor labor conditions for the working class and employers \u201cwho use human beings as mere instruments for moneymaking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEach needs the other: Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital,\u201d the 19th-century Pontiff wrote. \u201cMutual agreement results in the beauty of good order, while perpetual conflict necessarily produces confusion and savage barbarity.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Pius XI, in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno<\/a>, wrote of the importance of private property, that man must be able to \u201cfully cultivate and develop all his faculties unto the praise and glory of his Creator; and that by faithfully fulfilling the duties of his craft or other calling he may obtain for himself temporal and at the same time eternal happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n Socialism, he said, is \u201cwholly ignoring and indifferent to this sublime end of both man and society, affirms that human association has been instituted for the sake of material advantage alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReligious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist,\u201d Pius XI wrote.<\/p>\n Pope Benedict XVI differentiated socialism and democratic socialism. In 2006, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cIn many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n Though, in his 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est<\/a>, Benedict XVI wrote that government should not control everything but that society needs a state that, \u201cin accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Francis has criticized Marxist ideology but also \u201cradical individualism,\u201d which he said in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti<\/a> \u201cmakes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our own ambitions, as if by pursuing ever greater ambitions and creating safety nets we would somehow be serving the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, Francis encouraged cooperation and dialogue<\/a> between Marxists and Christians.<\/p>\n