Joseph the patron saint of fighting communism and socialism

 The Church has entrusted the battle against

Socialism and communism to the hands of Saint Joseph

In 1949 Pope Pius XII  issued the Decree Against Communism which excommunicated all Catholics collaborating with Communist organizations.

This Sacred Supreme Congregation has been asked:

1. whether it is lawful to join Communist Parties or to favour them;
2. whether it is lawful to publish, disseminate, or read books, periodicals, newspapers or leaflets which support the teaching or action of Communists, or to write in them;
3. whether the faithful who knowingly and freely perform the acts specified in questions 1 and 2 may be admitted to the Sacraments;
4. whether the faithful who profess the materialistic and anti-Christian doctrine of the Communists, and particularly those who defend or propagate this doctrine, contract ipso facto excommunication specially reserved to the Apostolic See as apostates from the Catholic faith.

The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Fathers entrusted with the supervision of matters concerning the safeguarding of Faith and morals, having previously heard the opinion of the Reverend Lords Consultors, decreed in the plenary session held on Tuesday (instead of Wednesday), June 28, 1949, that the answers should be as follows:

To 1. in the negative: because Communism is materialistic and anti-Christian; and the leaders of the Communists, although they sometimes profess in words that they do not oppose religion, do in fact show themselves, both in their teaching and in their actions, to be the enemies of God, of the true religion and of the Church of Christ;
to 2. in the negative: they are prohibited ipso iure (cf. Can. 1399 of the Codex Iuris Canonici);
to 3. in the negative, in accordance with the ordinary principles concerning the refusal of the Sacraments to those who are not disposed; to 4. in the affirmative. 

Marxism is satanic «The Communist Manifesto pointed out that its objective is about culturally transforming society, as stated in chapter two. Where Marx and Engels made it very clear that they sought to abolish the nation, religion and family. They state that, “Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality.” 

Saint Joseph was declared by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 patron against communism and moral laxity.

by Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th. •  ChurchMilitant.com • 

A powerful intercessor

The Catholic Church is calling upon God's foster father under the title of St. Joseph the Worker to combat the evils of socialism and especially atheistic socialism, which is Communism.

In 1955, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 to counteract the Socialist and Communist holiday of "International Workers Day" also known as May Day. He was building on the devotion developed by his predecessor, Pope Pius XI, who in his 1937 encyclical Divini Redemptoris wrote:

To hasten the advent of that "peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ" so ardently desired by all, We place the vast campaign of the Church against world Communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty protector. He belongs to the working-class, and he bore the burdens of poverty for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and vigilant head he was. To him was entrusted the Divine Child when Herod loosed his assassins against Him. In a life of faithful performance of everyday duties, he left an example for all those who must gain their bread by the toil of their hands. He won for himself the title of "The Just," serving thus as a living model of that Christian justice which should reign in social life.

Pius XI was, himself, building on the devotion forged by his predecessor Pope Benedict XV, who in his 1920 motu proprio Bonum Sane turned to St. Joseph to fight the evils of socialism: 

The advent of a certain universal republic ... which is founded on the absolute equality of men and on the communion of goods, and in which there is no longer any distinction of nationality, does not recognize the authority of the father on the children, neither of the public power on the citizens, nor of God on the men gathered in civil consortium.

We, therefore, most worried by the course of these events ... remind the children of the Church of their duty ... who earn their bread with labor, to keep them immune from the contagion of socialism, the bitter enemy of Christian principles, We with great solicitude recommend them in particular to St. Joseph, to follow him as their guide and to receive the special honor of his heavenly patronage.

Watch the panel discuss the role of God's foster father in The Download—St. Joseph the Worker.