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To: kabar
Yes, but I don't expect a communist to understand either about capitalism or religion. Individuals have the right to sell their labor to the highest bidder. You can try to sell this Marxist rhetoric about workers of the world uniting and casting off their chains, but I am not buying it.

Was Pope Leo XIII a Communist?

See his encyclical RERUM NOVARUM - ON CAPITAL AND LABOR

77 posted on 02/05/2007 7:42:34 PM PST by A. Pole (XIV century English rhyme: "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was the gentleman?")
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To: A. Pole
Was Pope Leo XIII a Communist?

No, but neither was he an economist. Unofortunately, sitting in the Chair of Peter does not confer upon the Holy Father any expertise on economic matters, and in this encylical, the Holy Father was way out of his area of competence.

Thankfully, the words of the pope are only binding on matters of faith or morals, and not on matters of economic policy.

79 posted on 02/05/2007 10:42:10 PM PST by curiosity
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To: A. Pole
You leap from one non-sequitur to another. Pope Leo XIII can expound on the relationship of government and labor, but he is not infallible on that subject.

We have labor unions in the US, but membership has decllined over the years to less than 20% of the workforce. Labor unions can be just as oppressive and corrupt as employers.

You seem to favor a more active and larger role for the government in the relationship between employer and employee with the view that the employer is the villian. You have no appreciation for entrepreneurship and the fact that small businessmen must put their own capital at risk to start up a business and make it profitable. They are the engines of prosperity and the ones who create jobs, not the government.

90 posted on 02/06/2007 7:54:08 AM PST by kabar
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To: A. Pole
Was Pope Leo XIII a Communist?

Nope, just a liberty hater according to Testem Benevolentiae, with a strong dislike of the melting pot and of freedom of the press. Though Pope Pius IX was worse with his condemnation of freedom of religion, separation of church and state and of the concept called human reason.

Though they both have similar viewpoints to Marx and socialists and communists who also deny the concept of man being able to use reason.
106 posted on 02/13/2007 1:25:49 AM PST by 4KennewickMan2Invent (Thinking is a good endeavor. Not thinking is the worst thing imaginable.)
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