Friday, February 4, 2011

Those Socialistic Popes!



“No one is in a state of salvation who knowingly lives on the profit of usury.”
— Pope Innocent III


“Would justice permit anyone to own and enjoy that upon which another has toiled? As effects follow the cause producing them, so it is just that the fruit of labor belongs precisely to those who have performed the labor.”
— Pope Leo XIII
“Rerum Novarum [On the Condition of the Working Classes]”


“It is shameful and inhuman, however, to use men as things for gain and to put no more value on them than what they are worth in muscle and energy.”
— Pope Leo XIII
“Rerum Novarum"
“It is incontestable that the wealth of nations originates from no other source than from the labor of workers.”
— Pope Leo XIII
“Rerum Novarum"

“Free competition, though within its limits is productive of good results, cannot be the ruling principle of the economic world. It is necessary that economic affairs be brought once more into subjection to a true and effective guiding principle.”
— Pope Pius XI
“Quadragesimo Anno”


“[It is the] function of government to adjust ownership to meet the needs of the public good.”
— Pope Pius XI
“Quadragesimo Anno”


“The system is vicious, both ethically and ontologically … capitalism degrades men to mere economic facts of cost, to be bargained for at lowest possible market prices.”
— Pope Pius XI
“Quadragesimo Anno”