Christian Socialism by Oszkár Fáber
In Népszava, 1907
The waking working class is preparing for a reckoning. It wants
to make Christ’s saying come true: “Happy are the ones that cry, the ones
that suffer and starve and thirst, because they will be comforted and satisfied”.
The privileged are trembling and the faithless capitalists are raising
temples. Socialism is forging ahead with huge steps on its way to
make Christianization and a cultured life possible for humanity by solving
economic problems. This is why the Roman Pope offers his help and
the threatened powers that be jump to his helping hand. Small wonder.
In exchange for their few golden coins they get shackles for the people
that they themselves would never be able to forge. Another time we
will examine the Christian-socialist shackles made in the workshop of the
papacy. For now this is enough evidence that the pope in the name
of Christ is trading in people. He is selling his patient flock to
the wealthy.
Christian socialists can only find collectivism insufficient because
they should, according to the Church Fathers, fight for communism, for
the collectivity in everything. Despite the ideas of the old church,
the testimony of history and common sense - they still protect private
property. The absurdity of this situation was already recognised
by a knowledgeable and deeply religious 18th century priest, and this is
why he described with passionate enthusiasm the beneficial effects of a
society based on collectivity: “There are a lot of problems - serious ones.
This is not how God wanted it to be. People are all children of one
and the same father, they should be one family. In a family everyone
keeps the other’s advantage in mind, as they all love one another and they
all share the good things they get. Each member tries to contribute
as much as he can with his learning and individual abilities. One
does this, the other does that but all individual acts do good for the
whole community and the those of the community do good for the individual.
We share everything, we own everything together, be it big or small.
There is no difference of rank in this family-like community. There
is no hunger on one side, while there is surplus on the other. The
glass that God filled with his gifts is passed from hand to hand.
The shaking graybeard, as well as the small child - the one not being able
to bear the strains of life yet, the other no longer – have as much right
to wet their lips as the man returning from work in the meadows, his forehead
kissed by sweat. One’s joys, as well as one’s sorrows, are shared
by all others. In case one of them is ill or cannot work any more
because of his age, the others feed him and take care of him so that he
never for one moment feels left alone.
The deeply religious priest who put these wonderful words down, followed
by elaborations providing evidence of apostolic bravery, was Lamennais
(Le livre du peuple 3.), he was excommunicated by the official church.
