QUOTATION: Dehumanization

We are scandalized at seeing what the release of the sub-human has done to the Fascists, Nazis, and Communists. Yet we have not learned that the same deleterious effects can be present in the individual who, starting with the philosophy that he is only a beast, immediately proceeds to act like one. To just the extent that a man is unmortified in his selfish passions, it becomes necessary for some external authority to control and subdue those passions. That is why the passing of morality and religion and asceticism from political life is inevitably followed by a police state, which attempts to organize the chaos produced by that selfishness. Law gives way to force; ethics is replaced by the secret police.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949

QUOTATION: Statism

There is now a false idealism of turning government into God by a vague notion that it gives everything to everybody.

--G.K. Chesterton

QUOTATION: A Religious Sister's Vocation

Many people say that we should work with social programs and with development programs; we are not here for that. Let everyone do what each can. I beg you sisters, never get mixed up. Love is for today, programs are for the future.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Where There is Love, There is God, Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ed.

QUOTATION: Crony Capitalism

There is less difference than many suppose between the ideal, Socialist system, in which the big businesses are run by the State, and the present Capitalist system, in which the State is run by the big businesses.

--G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, Oct. 27, 1928.

QUOTATION: Helping the Poor

Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going to go to hell. Period. There’s just no doubt about it. That has to be a foundational concern of Catholics and of all Christians. But Jesus didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments.

--Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

QUOTATION: The Political Health of a Nation

The political health of any nation can be measured by how much the people expect the state to give them and how little they expect to do for themselves, or how much they believe the world owes them a living.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Statism

In the parable of the Good Samaritan it is said that a priest and a Levite passed by the wounded man and help was given him by one of another race-namely, the Samaritan. We do not know whatever happened to the priest and the Levite, but it is very likely that they went into Jerusalem and reported the condition of the dying man to a social service agency.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Love and Statism

The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est #28