Quod apostolici muneris
Now, back to the start. Leo XIII devoted his entire second encyclical, 1878’s Quod apostolici muneris, to the subject of socialism. In the first paragraph, he wrote, “You understand, venerable brethren, that We speak of that sect of men who, under various and almost barbarous names, are called socialists, communists, or nihilists, and who, spread over all the world, and bound together by the closest ties in a wicked confederacy, no longer seek the shelter of secret meetings, but, openly and boldly marching forth in the light of day, strive to bring to a head what they have long been planning – the overthrow of all civil society whatsoever.”
Of socialists, Leo XIII wrote:
Surely these are they who, as the sacred Scriptures testify, “Defile the flesh, despise dominion and blaspheme majesty.” They leave nothing untouched or whole which by both human and divine laws has been wisely decreed for the health and beauty of life. They refuse obedience to the higher powers, to whom, according to the admonition of the Apostle, every soul ought to be subject, and who derive the right of governing from God; and they proclaim the absolute equality of all men in rights and duties. They debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is “the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith,” they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one’s mode of life. These are the startling theories they utter in their meetings, set forth in their pamphlets, and scatter abroad in a cloud of journals and tracts. Wherefore, the revered majesty and power of kings has won such fierce hatred from their seditious people that disloyal traitors, impatient of all restraint, have more than once within a short period raised their arms in impious attempt against the lives of their own sovereigns.
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“But the boldness of these bad men, which day by day more and more threatens civil society with destruction, and strikes the souls of all with anxiety and fear, finds its cause and origin in those poisonous doctrines which, spread abroad in former times among the people, like evil seed bore in due time such fatal fruit,” Leo XIII continued. He saw the church as a source of “doctrines and precepts whose special object is the safety and peace of society and the uprooting of the evil growth of socialism.”
He accused socialists of “stealing the very Gospel itself” and said they would “strive almost completely to dissolve” the bonds of family. He concluded, “And since they know that the Church of Christ has such power to ward off the plague of socialism as cannot be found in human laws, in the mandates of magistrates, or in the force of armies, let them restore that Church to the condition and liberty in which she may exert her healing force for the benefit of all society.”
Diuturnum
This encyclical is about the “origin of civil power.” It also mentions socialism, in a paragraph that begins by noting that “the doctrines on political power invented by late writers have already produced great ills amongst men, and it is to be feared that they will cause the very greatest disasters to posterity.” Leo wrote, “For an unwillingness to attribute the right of ruling to God, as its Author, is not less than a willingness to blot out the greatest splendor of political power and to destroy its force.”
He continued:
We have reached the limit of horrors, to wit, communism, socialism, nihilism, hideous deformities of the civil society of men and almost its ruin. And yet too many attempt to enlarge the scope of these evils, and under the pretext of helping the multitude, already have fanned no small flames of misery.
He didn’t know how right he would turn out to be. Writing in 1881, he didn’t know anything about the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, China, or any of the other communist horrors of the century to come.
Licet multa
This 1881 encyclical is about Catholics in Belgium, but Leo XIII felt it necessary to mention socialism in contrast with Christian society.
Most assuredly we, more than any one, ought heartily to desire that human society should be governed in a Christian manner, and that the divine influence of Christ should penetrate and completely impregnate all orders of the State. From the commencement of our Pontificate we manifested, without delay, that such was our settled opinion; and that by public documents, and especially by the Encyclical Letters we published against the errors of Socialism, and, quite recently, upon the Civil Power.
Auspicato concessum
Writing about St. Francis of Assisi in 1882, Leo XIII mentioned that focusing on his institutes would develop Christian virtue and defend against socialism. “Than this disposition of mind nothing is more efficacious to extinguish utterly every vice of this kind, whether violence, injuries, desire for revolution, hatred among the different ranks of society, in all which vices the beginnings and the weapons of socialism are found.”
Humanum genus
This encyclical is against Freemasonry. In passing, it mentions the “monstrous doctrines of the socialists and communists.”
Quod multum
Leo XIII wrote this encyclical in 1886, addressed to the bishops of Hungary. He wrote that the church is an “effective means of restraining socialism.” He sees Christianity and socialism as necessarily opposed to one another:
Nevertheless to restrain the danger of socialism there is only one genuinely effective means, in the absence of which the fear of punishment has little weight to discourage offenders. It is that citizens should be thoroughly educated in religion, and restrained by respect for and love of the Church. For the Church as parent and teacher is the holy guardian of religion, moral integrity, and virtue. All who follow the precepts of the Gospel religiously and entirely are, by this very fact, far from the suspicion of socialism. For religion commands us to worship and fear God and to submit to and obey legitimate authority. It forbids anyone to act seditiously and demands for everyone the security of his possessions and rights. It furthermore commands those who have wealth to come graciously to the aid of the poor. Religion aids the needy with all the works of charity and consoles those who suffer loss, enkindling in them the hope of the greatest eternal blessings which will be in proportion to the labor endured and the length of that labor. Therefore those who rule the states will do nothing wiser and more opportune than to recognize that religion influences the people despite all obstacles and recalls them to virtue and uprightness of character through her teachings. To distrust the Church or hold it suspect is, in the first place, unjust, and in the second, profits no one except the enemies of civil discipline and those bent on destruction.
Libertas
As the name suggests, this encyclical from 1888 is about the nature of liberty. Leo XIII mentions socialism as an example of a doctrine that perverts true human liberty, because it is based on revolution and envy:
With ambitious designs on sovereignty, tumult and sedition will be common amongst the people; and when duty and conscience cease to appeal to them, there will be nothing to hold them back but force, which of itself alone is powerless to keep their covetousness in check. Of this we have almost daily evidence in the conflict with socialists and members of other seditious societies, who labor unceasingly to bring about revolution. It is for those, then, who are capable of forming a just estimate of things to decide whether such doctrines promote that true liberty which alone is worthy of man, or rather, pervert and destroy it.
Exeunte iam anno
Written in 1888, this encyclical is about “the right ordering of a Christian life.” Leo XIII mentions socialism in a list of evils that result from ignoring Christian religion:
In this way We daily see the numerous ills which afflict all classes of men. These poisonous doctrines have utterly corrupted both public and private life; rationalism, materialism, atheism, have begotten socialism, communism, nihilism evil principles which it was not only fitting should have sprung from such parentage but were its necessary offspring. In truth, if the Catholic religion is wilfully rejected, whose divine origin is made clear by such unmistakable signs, what reason is there why every form of religion should not be rejected, not upheld, by such criteria of truth? If the soul is one with the body, and if therefore no hope of a happy eternity remains when the body dies, what reason is there for men to undertake toil and suffering here in subjecting the appetites to right reason?
Solzhenitsyn said that the best explanation for the evils of the Soviet Union might best be summed up with the sentence: “Men have forgotten God.” Leo XIII was foreshadowing that here.
Dall’alto dell’Apostolico seggio
Another encyclical about Freemasonry, this one focuses on Italy and was written in 1890. Leo XIII devoted an entire section to the dangers of socialism. It begins thus:
Moreover, one of the greatest and most formidable dangers of society at the present day, is the agitation of the Socialists, who threaten to uplift it from its foundations. From this great danger Italy is not free; and although other nations may be more infested than Italy by this spirit of subversion and disorder, it is not therefore less true that even here this spirit is widely spreading and increasing every day in strength. So criminal is its nature, so great the power of its organisation and the audacity of its designs, that there is need of uniting all conservative forces, if we are to arrest its progress and successfully to prevent its triumph.
Compare those words with these, from the mission statement for National Review:
The century’s most blatant force of satanic utopianism is communism. We consider “coexistence” with communism neither desirable nor possible, nor honorable; we find ourselves irrevocably at war with communism and shall oppose any substitute for victory.
Buckley was a Catholic, after all.
Permoti nos
Another encyclical about Belgium, written in 1895, exhorts Belgian Catholics to stand strong against socialism. Leo XIII specifically references Rerum novarum as one of his greatest efforts to warn against the evils of socialism:
Let them rather act in the closest concert in order to oppose all their plans and strength to the wickedness of Socialism, which very clearly will cause evils and great losses. For it is constantly and in every way exerting itself violently against religion and the state; it is striving every day to throw both divine and human laws into confusion and to destroy the good works of evangelical providence. Our voice has been raised often and vehemently against this great calamity, as the commands and warnings which We gave in the Letter Rerum Novarum sufficiently testify. So to this purpose all good men should direct their minds to the exclusion of factional interests. They should uphold the sacred order of God and of their country without doubt, in their legitimate fight on behalf of Christian truth, justice, and charity. For it is from this order that public safety and happiness spring.
Spesse volte
Leo XIII wrote to address the suppression of Catholic institutions in Italy in 1898. It bemoans the “progress of socialism and anarchy” and “the endless evil to which they expose the nation.” He wrote that the Catholic associations and charities that were being suppressed were a “bulwark against the subversive theories of socialism and anarchy” and that they would help the people of Italy by “shielding them from the perils of socialism and anarchy.”
Graves de communi re
Leo XIII opens this encyclical as follows:
The grave discussions on economical questions which for same time past have disturbed the peace of several countries of the world are growing in frequency and intensity to such a degree that the minds of thoughtful men are filled, and rightly so, with worry and alarm. These discussions take their rise in the bad philosophical and ethical teaching which is now widespread among the people. The changes, also, which the mechanical inventions of the age have introduced, the rapidity of communication between places, and the devices of every kind for diminishing labor and increasing gain, all add bitterness to the strife; and, lastly, matters have been brought to such a pass by the struggle between capital and labor, fomented as it is by professional agitators, that the countries where these disturbances most frequently occur find themselves confronted with ruin and disaster.
That was written 1901, but in many respects it could just as easily have been written in 2025.
Leo XIII wrote that he viewed it as his duty to “warn Catholics, in unmistakable language, how great the error was which was lurking in the utterances of socialism, and how great the danger was that threatened not only their temporal possessions, but also their morality and religion.” He said that was why he wrote Quod apolostici muneris almost immediately upon assuming the papacy, and again referenced Rerum novarum as a warning against socialism.
He then contrasted social democracy with Christian democracy. He saw social democracy as a stepping stone to socialism, because it is based on the same rejection of God and embrace of materialism. He wrote that social democracy, with due consideration to the greater or less intemperance of its utterance, is carried to such an excess by many as to maintain that there is really nothing existing above the natural order of things, and that the acquirement and enjoyment of corporal and external goods constitute man’s happiness. It aims at putting all government in the hands of the masses, reducing all ranks to the same level, abolishing all distinction of class, and finally introducing community of goods. Hence, the right to own private property is to be abrogated, and whatever property a man possesses, or whatever means of livelihood he has, is to be common to all.
“It is clear, therefore, that there in nothing in common between Social and Christian Democracy,” Leo XIII concluded. “They differ from each other as much as the sect of socialism differs from the profession of Christianity.” He later contrasted “Christian sentiments” with “the contamination of socialism which threatens them.”
Leo XIII again sounds prophetic about the evils of socialism that would be coming. Again, this was written in 1901, 16 years before the Bolshevik Revolution:
The condition of things at present proclaims, and proclaims vehemently, that there is need for a union of brave minds with all the resources they can command. The harvest of misery is before our eyes, and the dreadful projects of the most disastrous national upheavals are threatening us from the growing power of the socialistic movement. They have insidiously worked their way into the very heart of the community, and in the darkness of their secret gatherings, and in the open light of day, in their writings and their harangues, they are urging the masses onward to sedition; they fling aside religious discipline; they scorn duties; they clamor only for rights; they are working incessantly on the multitudes of the needy which daily grow greater, and which, because of their poverty are easily deluded and led into error. It is equally the concern of the State and of religion, and all good men should deem it a sacred duty to preserve and guard both in the honor which is their due.
Fin dal principio
In the penultimate encyclical of his pontificate, Leo XIII wrote about the education of Catholic clergy. He stressed the same message about the dangers of socialism and its opposition to the Christian faith, with emphasis on how priests should be educated to support Christian democracy and stay far away from any socialist causes:
We repeat again, and still more warmly, that the clergy go to a Christian people tempted on every side, and with every kind of fallacious promise offered by Socialism to apostatize from the true faith. They must therefore submit all their actions to the authority of those whom the Holy Spirit has constituted Bishops, to rule the Church of God, without which would follow confusion and the most grave disorders to the detriment even of the cause they have at heart to defend and promote. It is for this end that we desire that the candidates for the priesthood, on the conclusion of their education in the seminary, should be suitably instructed in the pontifical documents relating to the social question, and the Christian democracy, abstaining, however, as we have already said, from taking any part whatever in the external movement.
Conclusion
Leo XIII believed socialism was based on the sin of envy, contrary to God’s justice, bad for the poor, destructive of the family and of communities, and detrimental to the incentives to work, which is part of God’s design for mankind. He said socialists pervert Scripture and reject God’s authority. He used words like “evil,” “wicked,” “plague,” “monstrous,” and “hideous” to describe socialism, words he never used to reference markets or private property. On the contrary, he said private property is a bedrock part of God’s natural order for the world, and it must be protected, not undermined, by the state, and that true Christian teaching is a defense against socialism. If Leo XIV was inspired by Leo XIII’s legacy in choosing his regnal name, it would be great to see a resurgence in Catholic teaching on the evils of socialism.
