KARL MARX AND THE CHURCH'S SOCIAL DOCTRINE: RELATIONSHIPS AND FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES

Abstract

Are Catholicism and Marxism really so antagonistic? Do they have any elements in common? This debate has been occupying historians and academics since the publication of Rerum Novarum and Karl Mark's thought, which appear as a reaction to the industrial revolution driven by capitalism and the market economy). The article first describes their points of contact: chronological origin and their common motivation, that is, the exploitation of the proletariat and the centrality of human work. It then exposes the two fundamental differences: Marxism as a critical theory of political economics and the Church's Social Doc­trine as moral theology. Marx's goal is to achieve a communist society without classes, whereas the goal of the Church's Social Doctrine is to help Christians to live in the hope of the Kingdom of God, anticipating its reality through the concrete signs of history. Third, the text addresses the recent signs of approxi­mation between the two, since both Marxism and the Church's Social Doctrine remain timely.