Opinion

Patrick Murphy: Are some of the Pope's ideas similar to the core principles of socialism or even communism?

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;; ">The Pope has offered a common ground for debate between communism and Christianity</span>
The Pope has offered a common ground for debate between communism and Christianity The Pope has offered a common ground for debate between communism and Christianity

Is the Pope a communist? A rather blunt, and most unlikely question, you say, and you have a point.

So maybe we should re-phrase it: in his Fratelli Tutti (Brothers All) encyclical published last week, are some of the Pope’s ideas significantly similar to the core principles of socialism or even communism?

The encyclical (which is the Pope’s message to the clergy) addresses politics, economics and society. It offers an interesting relevance for the US presidential election, the Covid-19 pandemic and the growing inequality in our own society.

While they are unlikely to erect a statue of Karl Marx in the Vatican any time soon, the encyclical illustrates the Church’s (or at least this Pope’s) changing attitude to the problems of modern society. Welcome to a new departure, where people from opposite political positions are reaching common ground in understanding how the world got itself in a mess.

Pope Francis says that the “magic theories” of market capitalism have failed and we need a new type of politics, which is what Marx concluded 150 years ago. The fragility of world systems in the face of the pandemic, says Francis, demonstrates that not everything can be resolved by market freedom.

He points out that when capitalism collapsed (as Marx predicted) in the 2008 financial crisis, it provided an opportunity to develop a new, more ethical economy. But, he writes, it just created greater individualism and increased power for the already powerful.

Of course, the Pope and Marx have two different foundations for their arguments. Catholics believe in God, but Marx wrote that religion is the sigh of the oppressed (and, in fairness, praying is more common in a crisis than in good times).

But they both conclude that as wealth increases, so does inequality. Francis also dismisses the “trickle down” theory, which suggests that as the rich become richer, everyone benefits.

While Marx argued that change must come through revolution, Francis disagrees with violence, even abandoning the Church’s previous concept of a “just war”. But he says it is wrong to think that the only lesson to be learned from Covid-19 is to improve what we were already doing.

His encyclical is particularly relevant to America. It condemns leaders who are obsessed with their own popularity rather than the common good and who practice “empty individualism,” “narrow and violent nationalism” and the mistreatment of those who are different. It is unlikely that he is referring to Joe Biden.

The Catholic vote will be significantly important in the forthcoming presidential election, which is one reason why Trump recently picked Amy Barrett, a conservative Catholic, as a Supreme Court judge. But Biden would appear to have more support among the Irish American vote.

Nearer home, the Pope is now well to the left of all the major political parties in Ireland. (Can you imagine Stormont ministers pointing out that capitalism has failed?) But the weakness with this encyclical is that it will not necessarily translate into official Church doctrine. (Encyclicals are a bit like election manifestos. They describe what should happen, but not necessarily what will happen.)

In any case Pope Francis has his own problems. The wrongs he identifies appear uncomfortably close to his own doorstep. His recent sacking of a cardinal follows allegations that the Vatican’s purchase of a £125 million London apartment block has contributed to a £350 million hole in its finances. His encyclical argues for a better kind of politics (and we would say Amen to that in this part of the world) but it appears that he also needs a better kind of administration nearer home.

So will we notice any post-encyclical difference in this country? Probably not. The Church here will still be conservative, there will be no new politics and blind faith in the markets will dominate our economy. But in recognising that we need a new approach to society’s ills, the Pope has offered a common ground for debate between communism and Christianity. It will be a debate worth hearing.