Our beloved Pope John Paul II lived through the evil regimes of Nazi and Communist governments and conquered evil with love.
His courage inspired the people from within the countries that were plagued by Communism to be courageous, and as a result, the Communist iron curtain fell and the people became free.
There is a wonderful movie about his life called “Pope John Paul II” with Jon Voight. It’s just beautiful and truly depicts the amazing character and strength of this man.
I bring this up because of something he said about Communism, having lived through the reality of it during the totalitarian regimes of both the Socialist Nazi government and the Socialist Communist government. The reality of Communism as implemented throughout history is a horror story. Communism, as applied in societies, has had 100% rate of inhumanity and oppression. The effects of Communism are always and have always been throughout history starvation, mass murder, fear and governmental domination every bit as corrupt as any Nazi regime.
Oddly enough this is now very difficult to find on the Internet. You have to ask questions like “how many people died because of Communism?” (the answer is 100 million) in order to get an answer that is not skewed in favor of both Socialism and Communism. The results are much different than they used to be—I was surprised and not a little concerned when I tried to use the modern day search engines to research the issue.
You might want to read a few books about Communism to get a better perspective. Authors who witnesses Communism first hand— Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Malcolm Muggeridge and Peter Hitchins (Christopher Hitchins’ brother). The latter two especially were proponents of Communism until they saw what was really happening; until they saw the reality of Communism and the starvation and oppression that real Communism precipitated.
Look at modern day Venezuela for an example of how Communism has been most recently implemented. The mass starvations, the bread lines, the inhumanity that has been wrought since Communism has arrived in that country is heartbreaking.
Pope Saint John Paul II said it best in his Encyclical Letter, Centesimus Annus — On the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, May 1, 1991: “…we have to add that the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socioeconomic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil. Man is thus reduced to a series of social relationships, and the concept of the person as the autonomous subject of moral decision disappears, the very subject whose decisions build the social order. From this mistaken conception of the person there arise both a distortion of law, which defines the sphere of the exercise of freedom, and an opposition to private property.”
This is why socialist governments become corrupt. They seek power over everything and everyone and all of the resources. Power is completely centralized. The individual is crushed, his freedom, as well as the work of his hands, are stolen from him. He is a cog in a wheel—and receives no more benefit from working as from not working. There is a considerable amount of risk, effort and time that goes in to making things that benefit society. Some work round the clock and are, in free societies, rewarded for that work. If everyone gets the same amount, why not sleep a little more? Why work more than the bare minimum if at all? Why risk anything for nothing in return? Why work so hard when the money will only be stolen from you? So production goes down.
And the people in charge think, why should they only get the minimum like everyone else? They are in charge of all of the resources, why not give themselves just a bit more? They are the elite party members after all. It is the same principle, the same double standard as when the elite leave their many-roomed mansion(s) and fly their jets to meet at big and luxurious parties in order to give themselves awards and to make decisions for the hoi polloi —decisions like the riff raff should not be allowed to drive their cars to work or turn on their air conditioners, for example, in order to “save the environment.”
So, when one does not get to reap what he sows, what makes him work? This is a forced decision on him, after all. Ultimately the motivation always ends up being twofold–propaganda and fear.
The state has to be all in all—there can be no other gods that the people work for or serve. And so the religious oppression begins. Every time Communism is applied, Christians are persecuted—often severely persecuted. How can the dignity and value and rights of each person be God-given when the only thing that matters is the state? How can people be free to worship if it means they serve God and not the Communist government?
And what happens to information? The theory behind the idea that speech should be free is the ultimate reality that the truth rises to the top. Reasonable people find the truth in a marketplace of ideas. Everyone has a natural desire for truth. A well-informed conscience will exalt the truth over a lie no matter how hard the lie tries to deceive. The truth has reality on its side.
Now if the truth breaks through the propaganda, the state loses control. If anything said leads people to view the state as less important than any other interest—then the people would not act in ways pleasing to the state. A lie has to work so hard to combat the truth and shrivels in its presence. And so to keep up the propaganda, to make sure the lie does not have to compete with the truth, free speech is crushed, often, in Communist regimes, violently.
People are tortured and killed. Control over everyone is severe and final. The people are cut off from the outside world and there are severe penalties for trying to access it. The individual has no dignity, no value and must be sacrificed for the good of the whole, the good of the Communist regime.
And as products become more and more scarce, starvation inevitably occurs and people are more and more dominated, those in power, the ones who keep the power in this environment especially (check out the dark comedy “The Death of Stalin”), become more and more violent, more and more severe, and more and more corrupt.
The truth is this: Communism is and has always been evil and is contrary to the welfare of humanity.
And now to my point—why is this discussion on Communism found in a blog about the Catholic church?
There are people, even people whom you would not expect, who are starting to tell you that it is a Catholic value for the state to control “equality of justice,” internationally. It appears, in the light of the liberation theology that is slithering towards us like the serpent it is, that some in the church are arguing in favor of Communist ideology. In fact, there is a line in the Catechism that, looking at where some of this liberation theology is headed, has a much different meaning than I’m sure the authors intended.
Of course, they are starting out gradually. Have you ever heard of the concept of “frog in a hot pot?” Or “getting the foot in the door?” Both of these propaganda techniques lead people gradually, in increments forward in a way they can accept, so that they hardly notice the change. (The idea is that if you slowly warm up the water with a frog in it, the frog will eventually boil to death, but if you turn the stove on high right away, he jumps out. )
Well, it appears that people, even people whom we have spent our lives trusting, are doing that to us—gradually turning up the heat so that we don’t notice the radical change. The oneworld idea has been in the works for awhile now. And it appears that it might begin to be supported by the new pontiff. He is moving slowly, but may pick up the pace now that people have begun to take notice. It is time to be vigilant and on the alert — to pray very hard—very, very hard—and to pray for courage if it becomes necessary, as this type of regime always results in Christian persecution.
I will say this now, though. Anyone who tries to promote Socialism or Communism is not being moved by the Holy Spirit. You may have to look much further south to find that spirit. We will see what happens next. If “social justice” or the Catechism is used a call to build a oneworld government (especially if that government feels it must “redistribute the wealth” for the good of “mother earth” or any other false god), is LYING to you. This movement is purely evil and will result in great evil.
People are drawn to Socialism or Communism because the concepts sound very nice in theory. Flowery language is used to dress them up as a fundamental good—who doesn’t want to help the poor? Terms like “social justice” sound really wonderful. Who doesn’t want justice? But there is a difference between what sounds good and what is truly good. Be wary of the wolves in sheeps’ clothing.
And pray, pray, pray!!!!!!
