IF by capitalism is meant, not diffused ownership of property, but monopolistic capitalism in which capital bids for labor on a market, and concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, then from an economic point of view alone, the Church is just as much opposed to capitalism as it is to communism. Communism emphasizes social use to the exclusion of personal rights, and capitalism emphasizes personal rights to the exclusion of social use. The Church says both are wrong, for though the right to property is personal, the use is social.

…. Capitalistic economy is godless; communism makes economics God.

— Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948)

See the continuing discussion in this entry.

Please follow and like us: