Pope Francis issued only an
“Apostolic Exhortation” recently, which contains sections that Rush Limbaugh labeled "pure Marxism."
But in 1931, Pope Pius XI issued a more authoritative Encyclical to the Catholic Church “Quadragesimo Anno” http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/Kidd/thesis/pdf/quadragesimo.pdf , which said in paragraph 10 that
“socialism … proposing a remedy far worse than the evil itself, would have plunged human society into great dangers.”
Pope Pius XI further pronounced: “Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”
But in 1931, Pope Pius XI issued a more authoritative Encyclical to the Catholic Church “Quadragesimo Anno” http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/Kidd/thesis/pdf/quadragesimo.pdf , which said in paragraph 10 that
“socialism … proposing a remedy far worse than the evil itself, would have plunged human society into great dangers.”
Pope Pius XI further pronounced: “Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”
In paragraph 120 of “Quadragesimo
Anno,” the Pope authoritatively pronounces that socialism “is based
nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable
with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are
contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true
socialist.”
