EDITORIAL
The Pope & capitalism
The Pope has criticized capitalism. On his recent visit to
Mexico, he chided the "law of the market" and professed love
for the poor. He also called for the church to pay more
attention to the rich.
This is the Pope who shot down the movement of progressive
Catholics called liberation theology, saying it was too close
to Marxism because it advocated social activism. John Paul is
also the first Polish Pope, strongly supported by U.S.
imperialism because of his role in organizing
counter-revolution in Eastern Europe.
But now the Pope has criticized capitalism. Has he moved to
the left?
No. The latest pronouncements from the head of Roman
Catholicism fit handily into the church's history of finding
phrases to appeal to the masses in times of crisis while
opposing social movements that would truly restructure society.
Take the words of Pope Pius XI, whose radio address on May 15,
1931, was front-paged by the New York Times the next day. The
Pope, said the Times, "appealed to `all men of good will' to
supplant class war with class collaboration and revise the
relations between capital and labor in order to bring about a
fairer division of their common efforts, ending a system which
`permits capitalists to grow rich while labor remains doomed to
a life of hard toil.' "
That speech was given when world capitalism had just hit
bottom. Workers had been thrown out of their jobs by the tens
of millions. All over the world, they were looking for answers
about what to do, while fighting depression and despair. The
revolutionary message of communism--that the workers should
unite and organize to overthrow the capitalist system--was
winning mass adherents.
Where was the church in all this? Preaching class
collaboration and anti-communism, as it does today. In Spain,
the church threw its lot in with Franco and his fascist
movement against the workers and peasants--many of whom were
Catholics. Fascism, whether in Italy, Spain or Germany, also
demagogued against capitalism--calling it a "Jewish
conspiracy"--but at the same time protected the interests of
the biggest capitalists against the revolutionary movement of
the workers sweeping Europe.
The church has inveighed against capitalism for centuries.
After all, Catholicism was the main ideological prop for an
even earlier economic system based on oppression and
exploitation--feudalism. The church's first struggles with the
new bourgeoisie were over the church's rejection of the
Enlightenment--the pragmatic, anti-dogmatic world view that was
necessary to free human thought, and eventually property, from
the stagnation of the medieval system and pave the way for
capitalist development.
But that was a long time ago. Capitalism has now long
superseded feudalism as the main system oppressing the masses,
and the modern church has been converted to coexist with
capitalism, no matter what its leaders say in times of crisis.
It is socialism that the church hierarchy really fears. With
Latin America now in turmoil as markets collapse, the Pope's
pronouncements are merely a harbinger of major class battles to
come and show how painfully the Catholic masses are being
affected by this latest capitalist crisis.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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