The Archives

The Popes and the Communists

There is nothing which (communism) does not dare, nothing for which it has respect or reverence; and when it has come to power, it is incredible and portent like in its cruelty and inhumanity.

- Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931

Under an appearance of patriotism, which in reality is just a fraud, this (Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association) aims primarily at making Catholics gradually embrace the tenets of atheistic materialism, by which God Himself is denied and religious principles are rejected.

- Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, March 19, 1937

Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever.

- Pius XII, Address to the International Convention of Catholic Press, February 18, 1950

The most fundamental modern error is that of imagining that man's natural sense of religion is nothing more than the outcome of feeling or fantasy, to be eradicated from his soul as an anachronism and an obstacle to human progress.

- John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961

Unity is not the result of human policies or hidden and mysterious intentions. Instead, unity springs from conversion of the heart and from sincere acceptance of the unchanging principles laid down by Christ for His Church.

- John Paul II, Message to Catholics in China, January 12, 1996

But tear the very idea of God from the hearts of men, and they are necessarily urged by their passions to the most atrocious barbarity.

- Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, March 19, 1937