Fighting Communism

The Catholic Worker proposes fighting
Communism
the way the first Christians
fought pagan Romanism,
through the works of mercy.
The Catholic Worker proposes fighting
Communism
the way the Irish scholars
fought pagan feudalism,
through Round-Table Discussions,
Houses of Hospitality,
Farming Communes.
The Communists do not build Communism,
they build Socia1ism.
The Catholic Worker
does not build Catholic Socialism,
it builds Catholic Communism.
The Catholic Worker
builds Catholic Communism
the way the first Christians
and the Irish scholars
built Catholic Communism.
The Catholic Worker believes
that there is no better Communism
than Catholic Communism,
and that there is no better way
to build Catholic Communism
than by building Catholic Communes.
Catholic Communes
are not a new thing,
they are an old thing.
Catholic Communes are so old
that Catholics have forgotten them.
Communists have not invented anything,
not even the name Commune.
The Communist ideal
is the Common Good ideal–
the ideal of St. Thomas More,
the ideal of St. Thomas Aquinas,
the ideal of the Irish scholars,
the ideal of the first Christians.
The doctrine of the Common Good
of St. Thomas Aquinas
is still a Catholic doctrine.
We don’t need a new doctrine,
we need an old technique.
We need the old technique
of the first Christians
and the Irish scholars.
What was good for the first Christians
and the Irish scholars
ought to be good enough for us.
What was practical for them
ought to be practical for us.