So I overheard one person I know telling another person I know that “socialism and communism are evil and the church is very clear on that” (referring to the catholic church). And I’m trying to channel my burning frustration about it into asking what people know about communism and how it has interacted with religion more generally, but also catholicism especially, now or historically. I super hard doubt what this person said was even remotely correct, but I could believe that the catholic church takes a wishy washy fence-sitting stance because it tends to on a number of things.
At any rate, it’s something I should know better because I do have catholic people in my life and so sometimes there may be a need to talk to them about these things through the framing of religion to get past the “communism is purely atheistic” type thinking.
Answers from your own knowledge or resources that go into it are both welcomed. I don’t really know how to approach looking for it on my own in this instance because a lot of western religious material is probably influenced by colonizer thinking, or in the US, influenced by red scare nonsense.
The catholic church was an influential and highly powerful actor in Poland’s counterrevolution. John Paul II is also considered an influential figure by the societal psyche, although nowadays he’s more of a meme than a respected figure. An outdated cult of personality your grandma is subject to.
Himself, the Polish pope was an ardent anti-communist. His wikipedia page, especially the Polish one, is full of citations to that fact. So if the right wing encyclopedia agrees on all that, I think it’s sources are “good enough”
A lot of major right wing and Catholic newspapers in Poland agree also, that the church was very influential with the Pope in the center.
Radio Trójka for example, paints the events of 1989, as “Poland regaining independence”. From what I do not know, but they do say something important.
“The Catholic Church in Poland under communism is an exception to the rule. It is the only social institution in the entire Soviet bloc that maintained its independence from communist rule on such a scale. This is a phenomenon,” concluded Warsaw University historian Prof. Pawel Skibinski.” - Translated with DeepL, I feel rahter lazy today lol
As you can see, the church could operate rather freely within the country. A huge mistake in my eyes, as Catholicism’s centralist(?) approach to organization is their strength to me, and they used it to restore Capitalism. I will never forgive them, because now I have to live in the mess they’ve made.
Well, shit. So far the responses are making me think I’ve been too easy on the catholic church because of having family who believes in it fervently. Not that I haven’t had any criticisms, but I may have been viewing it with too much “good faith” (incidental use of the word faith there, not meant in the religious way, tho I guess it kinda works in that meaning too :P).
If you want some hope, look up Liberation Theology. It’s cool because John Paul II officially denounced it.
it is impossible to be too hard in the international conspiracy to aid and abet child abusers. the crimes of the catholic church are truly innumerable