The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-08-03
THE CHURCH AND
SOCIALISM.

ton in Chicago, the Right Rever-
end John P. Carroll of Helena,
National Chaplain of the Order,
took occasion to contrast the atti-
tude of the Church towards the
laboring class with that Of So
cialism, and pointed out how
antagonistic to the welfare Of the
working man are the doctrines Of
the latter. He said in part:
"The Church, animated by the
spirit Of her Founder, always has
espoused the cause Of the poor and
the downtrodden. Her teachings
and her legislation have caused
slavery to disappear from the
world. She has rebuked kings and
deprived them of their crowns that
justice might be done to their
oppressed subjects.
"The workingmen's guilds Of
the Middle Ages, which secured
the rights of the laboring man,
were her creation, and they are the
models of the labor unions of our
own age. From the very begin
ming Of our modern industrial
development the Church has
espoused the cause Of the laboring
man.
"The great Won Ketteler, who
| led the social reform movement in
Germany, was called the laboring
mans bishop The London dock
workers will never forget the
friendly interest of Cardinal Man
ming, and we are all familiar with
the efforts of Cardinal Gibbons on
behalf of the Knights Of Labor.
'tBut it was reserved for the
great Pontiff Leo XIII to define
the attitude Of the Church itself
towards the great economic prob
lens of our modern life. His ency-
clical on the condition of labor
has become the textbook of states
men and churchmen, of leaders of
capital and labor-in a word, of
all who sincerely strive to solve
the problems of modern indus
trialism.
"After the splendid record of
nineteen centuries Socialism dares
to whisper in the ear of the labor
ing man that the Church is his
enemy; that she is allied with
capitalism for the purpose of
keeping from labor it's just re
wards. ~:
cit tells him the war of class
against class is inevitable; that
the present capitalist system is
the source of all the evils OF
modern society; that labor is
the source of all wealth and
should, therefore, receive as its
reward all the wealth that it pro.
duces. 1t regards the present SO.
cial order as bankrupt and to be
replaced by the new cooperative
commonwealth. It's aim is nc
social reform but social revolu
ton.
''The Church would warn the
laboring man of the false pre-.
lenses of Socialism. She WOULD
again re-state the old doctrine Of
the dependence of men upon one
another, of their inequalities re
duced to harmony by mutual co
operation, of their equality Of
7 nature. origin and destiny and the
affection they should have for one
another as members Of the same
mystic body of which Christ is the
head.
"She would teach him the earth
and all it contains the sunshine
and the rain, and the air we
breathe, as well as labor of brai1
and Drawn contribute to the pro
duction of material blessings. Sht
, admits the greed of capitalists il
responsible for many of the ILL
that afflict the laboring man, bu
she knows that to destroy capita
itself and all productive property
would do irreparable harm to thu
, laboring man himself.
"She is willing to use all hel
J influence to bring about the socia
reforms that are needed to i'm
prove the condition of laborine
men, but she will never consent tt
the total destruction of the socia
order itself. In other words, she
condemns Socialism as the enemy
Of the laboring man.
Worst of all, Socialism would