Pope’s 5th Encyclical Calls Marxism ‘Death of Man’

Pope John Paul II, in the fifth encyclical of his papacy, today lashed out at atheism and Marxism, saying philosophies that reserve no place for God are really the “death of man.”

In the 141-page document, the pontiff also condemned what he described as increasing signs of death in the modern world, including poverty and famine, terrorism, the danger of nuclear self-destruction, abortion and euthanasia.

The encyclical, entitled in Latin “Dominum et Vivificantem” (The Lord, the Giver of Life), is devoted to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity, along with the Father and the Son.

An encyclical is the most authoritative form of papal letter, informing the Roman Catholic Church and its members of matters of importance.

In the document, John Paul discussed the meaning and the role of the Holy Spirit as Christianity prepares to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus.

The encyclical blamed the troubles of the world on “the evil of disobedience” to God through “man’s claim to become an independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil.

“We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the radical ‘alienation’ of man,’ ” John Paul wrote.

“Hence a process of thought and historic-sociological practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his ‘death’--an absurdity both in concept and expression,” the Pope said.

But the notion of the “death of God,” John Paul said, is more a threat to humanity than anything else and represents “the ideology of the ‘death of man.’ ”

He attacked Marxism for opposing religion “as a kind of idealistic illusion to be fought with the most suitable means and methods according to circumstances of time and place, in order to eliminate it from society and from man’s very heart.”

He said Christians “cannot but reject” Marxism as anti-religious materialism. The Pope said materialism has placed God “in a state of suspicion” and challenges man to become the adversary of God.