For many, the terms “devout Catholic” and “democratic socialist” occupy opposite ends of a cultural and political spectrum. In the U.S. imagination specifically, Catholicism is often associated with traditionalism and hierarchical order, while socialism is frequently dismissed as an atheistic relic of the Cold War. However, for those who look closely at the radical demands of the Gospel and the robust body of Catholic Social Teaching (CST), the marriage between these two identities isn’t just a possibility—it is a deeply logical, moral, and spiritual homecoming.

To be a devout Catholic is to believe that the “Word became flesh” and dwelt among us. This Incarnation sanctifies the material world. It means that the hunger of a child, the dignity of a laborer, and the greed of a billionaire are not merely “political” issues; they are theological ones. When we look at the structural critiques offered by democratic socialism, we find a framework that, perhaps better than any other modern political system, seeks to institutionalize the very mercy and justice that Christ commanded.

The Common Good and Private Property

At the heart of Catholic Social Teaching lies the principle of the Common Good: the sum total of social conditions that allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.

Modern neoliberal capitalism operates on a contradictory premise. It suggests that if everyone pursues their own selfish interests, a “hidden hand” will somehow balance the scales for everyone. The Catholic tradition rejects this. From St. Thomas Aquinas to Pope Francis, the Church has consistently taught that private property is not an absolute right; it is subordinate to the universal destination of goods.

Democratic socialism mirrors this theological priority. It posits that essential human needs—healthcare, housing, education, and a livable environment—should not be subject to the whims of the market. When a democratic socialist argues that a billionaire’s third yacht is less important than a community’s access to clean water, they are not being “envious.” They are practicing a form of distributive justice that finds its roots in the Acts of the Apostles, where the early Church “held all things in common” and distributed to each “as any had need.”

The Sanctity of Labor

One of the most profound overlaps between Catholicism and democratic socialism is the Sanctity of Labor. In his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII defended the rights of workers to organize into unions and demanded that they be paid a living wage. He famously critiqued the “misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.”

Democratic socialism takes this critique to its structural conclusion. It argues that capital should not have priority over labor. In our current system, the worker is often treated as a “cost” to be minimized rather than a human person with a soul. Democratic socialism advocates for:

• Workplace Democracy: Giving workers a say in the management of the firms where they spend most of their waking lives.
• Strong Labor Unions: Viewing collective bargaining as a necessary check on the “despotic economic dictatorship” that Pope Pius XI warned against in Quadragesimo Anno.
• Elimination of Poverty: Recognizing that a “starvation wage” is a violation of the Seventh Commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”).

Integral Ecology

Perhaps the most contemporary and urgent bridge between these two worlds is Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical, Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home). In this document, the Pope articulates a vision of Integral Ecology, which asserts that we cannot separate the cry of the earth from the cry of the poor.

Pope Francis offers a scathing critique of the “technocratic paradigm” and the “throwaway culture” driven by a blind pursuit of profit. This is where the devout Catholic finds a natural ally in democratic socialism. Both acknowledge that an economic system predicated on infinite growth on a finite planet is not only unsustainable—it is sinful.

Democratic socialism’s call for a Green New Deal is a practical application of the Pope’s call for an “ecological conversion.” When the Pope writes that “the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone,” he is challenging the very foundations of extractivist capitalism.

Subsidiarity and Solidarity

Critics often argue that socialism is synonymous with a “big government” that crushes local initiative. However, Democratic Socialism is distinct from authoritarian state-socialism because it values the Catholic principle of Subsidiarity.

Subsidiarity suggests that matters should be handled by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized competent authority. Democratic socialism seeks to decentralize power through community-owned cooperatives and local credit unions. Balanced with this is Solidarity. Pope John Paul II described solidarity as a “firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.”

Addressing the Critics

The most common hurdle for the Catholic socialist is the historical condemnation of socialism by past popes. Modern apologists like Trent Horn have argued that Catholic teaching and socialism are inherently incompatible.

However, this perspective often overlooks the distinction between ideological (atheistic) socialism and programmatic democratic socialism. While the Church defends the right to private property, it insists that this right is never absolute. By focusing on the “democratic” half of the equation, the Catholic socialist rejects the atheistic materialism Horn fears, instead embracing a system where the state is a tool for popular will.

Many of the greatest Catholic figures of the last century—Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Cesar Chavez—embraced socialist critiques of capitalism. Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, lived a life of voluntary poverty and radical resistance, proving one can be “more Catholic than the Pope” while calling for the overthrow of the capitalist order.

A Consistent Ethic of Life

Finally, being a Catholic socialist allows for a “consistent ethic of life,” often called the Seamless Garment. A devout Catholic believes in the dignity of life from conception to natural death.

While the secular Left and the religious Right often split these issues, the Catholic socialist sees them as intertwined. We cannot claim to be “pro-life” while supporting an economic system that makes it impossible for a poor mother to afford prenatal care. Democratic socialism provides the material tools to support a culture of life by guaranteeing healthcare, maternity leave, and a living wage.

To be a devout Catholic and a democratic socialist is to inhabit a space of radical tension. It is a call to return to the basics: Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the stranger. If our current economic system makes those tasks harder, then as Catholics, we have a moral obligation to change that system.

Bibliography and Recommended Reading

Primary Church Documents

• Leo XIII. Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor), 1891.
• Pius XI. Quadragesimo Anno (On Reconstruction of the Social Order), 1931.
• John Paul II. Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year), 1991.
• Francis. Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home), 2015.
• Francis. Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship), 2020.

Books and Essays

• Day, Dorothy. The Long Loneliness. HarperOne, 1952.
• Horn, Trent. Can a Catholic Be a Socialist? Catholic Answers Press, 2020. (For an overview of the opposing view discussed).
• Merton, Thomas. Seeds of Destruction. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1964.
• Cort, John C. Christian Socialism: An Informal History. Orbis Books, 1988, 2nd edition, 2020, with a new introduction by Gary Dorrien.
• Eagleton, Terry. Why Marx Was Right. Yale University Press, 2011.
• Bernardin, Joseph Cardinal. The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life. Orbis Books, 2008.

The post Devout Catholic and Democratic Socialist: Not Oxymorons appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

Welcome: Welcome to The Nutmeg Socialist. This is a forum for Connecticut socialists to share thoughts, document our organizing work, […]

Tell Gov Whitmer to support AG Nessel’s Anonymous ICE Reporting Platform!

In the wake of ICE’s murderous campaign to kidnap our neighbors and restrict our Constitutional rights, we call on Governor Whitmer to support Attorney General Nessel’s recently launched anonymous reporting platform. We call on Whitmer to form an accountability commission to review ICE’s many crimes and constitutional violations. This group of masked secret police has been terrorizing communities with impunity for far too long.

Michigan will not be safe until we know that we have the ability to hold ICE accountable for their many assaults upon our communities and country. Our residents must also be able to do so knowing they are protected by our State from what has been proven to be an extremely corrupt and vengeful Trump regime.

• Anonymity & Privacy Protection: Individuals can now report misconduct without revealing their identity or contact information.
• Secure Evidence Submission: Photos, videos, and documents can now be submitted securely to protect the integrity of the evidence.
• Independent Oversight: Reports MUST be reviewed by an impartial body, ensuring transparency and fairness in the investigative process.
• Legal Protections for Whistleblowers: Michigan residents who report abuses MUST be protected by state and federal whistleblower laws.
• Collaboration with Advocacy Groups: The platform MUST work closely with civil rights organizations to ensure that the process remains accessible, credible, and effective.

The post Break the ICE: Accountability for ICE appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

The surge of ICE harassment, raids and deportations in the second Trump administration has focused unprecedented attention on the problem of anti-migration enforcement. In the wake of the murders of Renee Goode and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, we have not seen the likes of this mobilization on any major political question since the peak of the Black Lives Matter Movement. A recent opinion poll shows that nationally, a near-majority of the population now supports abolishing ICE. We need to seize this moment and keep the momentum going to make sure that this is achieved.

This milestone, evidence of a growing collective aspiration for an abolitionist, socialist future, should have translated into decisive planning at the state level. As a dues-paying member and invited panelist for Danbury Unites for Immigrants attending virtually, I left the meeting appreciating the earnest effort while recognizing some missed opportunities. What follows is offered in a spirit of comradely critique, with the aim of strengthening our shared work.

Civilization rises and falls—sometimes in meer moments. Pompeii, Nagasaki, the Sack of Rome, Atlantis… Sometimes I think about how short life could have been and whether that’s better or worse than dying when you’re older. I think about people that have survived horrors—Holocaust survivors who lived through death camps but died in a car accident. My own grandmother who immigrated to the United States from Iran completely by herself, lived with my grandfather who was an abusive drunk (although loved her), lived through a global pandemic, and then, DURING the pandemic, got cancer, and passed away just before she could see me get married. Throughout this whole time, friends of mine were having children. Babies were born, people died, and life carried on. But times were scary. We didn’t know what was coming next. So the question remains: does life actually find a way? Is it responsible to have children and carry on a legacy when you know the dangers around every corner? 

I would like to begin this section by briefly channeling the collective spirit of our Fascist friends. Don’t be alarmed […]

Polling from mid-2025 showed 62% of Democratic voters felt a change in party leadership was needed. These voters are shown to feel that current leaders are not doing enough to fight against Trump’s creeping (if not galloping) authoritarianism. This divide is likely to expand in the face of an underwhelming response to the occupation of Minneapolis and the clearly recorded execution of two of the city’s citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

This past Saturday, the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America (CT DSA) held an emergency meeting to organize around abolishing United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There’s been a lot of news about ICE lately, as many of the other recent articles on the Nutmeg Socialist cover.

This is an opinion piece written collaboratively by the Migrant Rights Working Group and was not voted on at a general membership meeting. Opinion pieces from sub-bodies do not reflect the opinions of all members and are not chapter approved statements.

Without reservation, the Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America (SL DSA) firmly oppose any and all immigration detention within Utah. We reject the Federal Government’s racist, nativist, and exploitative approach to immigration policy, and are appalled at the intentional and cruel humanitarian crisis it has created. Recent leaks uncovering plans for an immigration detention facility in Utah threaten to continue the state’s ugly history of participation in large scale, racially-targeted internment. These past and present attempts to suppress immigrant communities are not only an affront to the fundamental notion of intrinsic human dignity, but also a cudgel wielded against the interests of the working class. They obscure the identities of the true architects of our exploitation, redirecting responsibility for our justified feelings of bitterness and discontentment away from oppressive regimes and economies and onto the precarious and undocumented; those who are, in fact, our allies. 

Over the past several months, internal ICE documents have emerged that outline a plan utilizing US military resources to establish “facilities to house as many as 10,000 people each” in several locations across the country, including Salt Lake City. After the failure of Florida’s taxpayer funded “Alligator Alcatraz” which was shuttered after violating detainee rights, disregarding local government and tribal rights, and dismissing environmental concerns, one would think that Utah’s leaders would express more hesitation to ride shotgun on this wild spectacle of waste and abuse. Sadly, it is not so: Utah’s state-level and congressional leadership, in submissive fealty to Trump’s agenda, refused to comment, much less openly oppose the effort. With new leaks indicating a warehouse near Salt Lake City International Airport as the intended location, there has been mixed response from local officials. The only official acknowledgement from Salt Lake City has been a rather passive reminder from Mayor Erin Mendenhall that a detention center at the location would run afoul of local zoning ordinances; on the other hand, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson admirably condemned the plan and committed the county to fighting it “using every available tool.” In the face of such inconsistent leadership, we salute the people of Utah that showed up in the early hours of January 13^th to make their opposition perfectly clear. While the owners of the rumored detention center site ultimately denied their intent to sell or lease to ICE, it is abundantly clear that ICE’s continue working to build the infrastructure necessary to execute their authoritarian directive. Considering today’s fresh atrocities and with historical perspective, SL DSA’s stance is rooted in one critical message: never again. 

“Never again:” a much-needed refrain which calls us to remember Utah’s record of hosting racial concentration camps within its borders. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, directing the Secretary of War to “prescribe military areas […] from which any or all persons may be excluded” and provide for them “other accommodation as may be necessary.” EO 9102 established the War Relocation Authority, and assigned it the task of “[effectuating] a program for the removal…of the persons or classes of persons designated under [EO 9066], and for their relocation.” In the text of these two executive orders, which speciously argued for the need to protect against foreign espionage and sabotage, Roosevelt identifies a single justification: national security. 

Two of the sites that provided for that relocation program, which in total detained approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, were the Topaz War Relocation Center in the desert west of Delta, Utah, and the Dalton Wells Isolation Center, a disciplinary camp outside Moab. From 1942 to 1945, 11,000 people were incarcerated in the Topaz camp, making it the fifth largest city in Utah over its three years of operation. Prisoners were given “loyalty questionnaires,” with those not deemed sufficiently loyal sent to more restrictive isolation facilities like Dalton Wells. A unique stain on state history, these concentration camps were the result of a government empowering itself to decide whose rights were sacred, and whose were forfeit. 

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The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming. 

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Now, these actions are justified with the same warlike rhetoric and appeal to the maintenance of national security. Equating immigration to a “foreign invasion” and making use of military largesse, ICE and the US military are coordinating on a facility in Utah that could have a capacity nearly the size of Topaz. This facility could have up to 10,000 beds, with detainees potentially housed in weather-vulnerable soft-sided tents. We are now living through a moment that demonstrates that although history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme: the Trump regime engages in racial profiling, deports citizens and legal residents, targets and sanctions those critical of the regime, and offers excuses and justifications for its most violent excesses. The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming. 

SL DSA’s stance is one that increasingly resonates with the people of Utah as we face a hostile government intent on stripping away our rights. We demand: no detention centers in Utah, no cooperation with ICE, and full solidarity with our immigrant community. We reject any false distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants, “legal” and “illegal” immigrants, and immigrating the “right way” and the “wrong way.” These distinctions are nothing more than the flimsy judgements of an immoral power structure with no respect for our rights, protections, or human worth. Finally, we reject the increasingly brazen lies of the Trump administration, as it claims “If you are here legally and contributing, you have nothing to fear.” In fact, cases of arrest based on ICE’s refusal to accept documentation, employment records, payment of taxes, or even while following the official immigration process all fall apart under the barest scrutiny. There is no logic, no rule of law, and no respect for human beings in ICE’s “enforcement” activities. 

In our ongoing work, our goal is to mobilize, organize, and educate the working class, ultimately engendering and reinforcing solidarity within it. This objective necessarily must include working class immigrants. If a portion of the working class is deemed unworthy of protection, the rights of the working class as a whole cannot be assured. 

Words on a page, however, are not enough. As wages are depressed, as landlords are permitted to use immigration status to threaten tenants, as bosses and managers benefit from workers’ stolen labor, the consequences of this authoritarian regime will affect us all. This regime and the capitalist economic structure that gave birth to it requires systemic exploitation in order to sustain themselves. At its best, it must demand silence; at its worst, it requires complicity and total obedience. In order to justify this system and its cruel repercussions, we are invited to despise and ostracize our fellow human beings. As socialists, we refuse. We invite you to join us in that refusal, and struggle with us to build a better world that is inclusive of us all.

ETA: Credit where credit is due to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who in her 2026 State of the City address, elaborated on her firm opposition to ICE operations in the city.

No, there is no terrible thing happening coming for you in some distant future. But know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness? Forget pity. Forget even the dead, if you must. But at least fight against the theft of your soul.”

― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

The post Never Again: Revisiting the Tragedy of Mass Detention in Utah first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.