Socialism is rising in modern America. Among younger generations, there is deep concern over high housing and medical costs, mounting student loan burdens, and stagnant wages. Since the 2008 recession, there has been great skepticism toward traditional corporate capitalism, setting the stage for progressive political mobilization.
In the last couple of years, socialist-backed candidates have won multiple local and congressional primary races in major urban areas. Most electoral success has remained concentrated in deep-blue, urban districts rather than competitive national battlegrounds. Lest one think that socialists are a crazy fringe group, the growth in numbers present a different story. For example, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has grown from roughly 6,000 members in 2015 to over 120,000 members.
Their most notable victory occurred on January 1, 2026, when Zohran Mamdani took office as mayor of New York City. Mamdani is a member of the DSA who ran on a platform that targeted urban affordability, wealth redistribution, and public service expansion.
Mamdani recently advanced a controversial $70 million initiative to establish a network of five city-owned, publicly subsidized grocery stores – one in each borough in New York City. These stores will offer a 30% discount on basic food essentials like produce, milk, eggs, and meat. The new government-backed stores will present a challenge to the free market in grocery retail and create a huge burden on taxpayers in New York City.
The rise of Democratic Socialism in America is a great opportunity for reflection and the Catholic Church’s response to it. Traditional socialism is a political and economic system where the community or the government owns and controls the major means of production. Factories, land, and resources are run by the government instead of private business owners. The government plans how goods are made and distributed to meet basic human needs such as food, housing, healthcare, and education.
Democratic socialism, for its part, works to heavily transform capitalism through a democratic political system, looking to take over major industries while allowing small-scale private enterprise. Whereas traditional socialism seeks to replace capitalism entirely through centralized state planning, democratic socialism seeks a more gradual approach of centralizing power around the state. Whereas traditional socialism would be akin to a traumatic event paralyzing the free market and human agency, democratic socialism is more like a slow-growing cancer on society. Regardless, socialism’s nasty sibling, Marxism, welcomes both as it sees both as a stepping-stone phase that leads eventually to a final, classless, and stateless communist society.
The Catholic Church has long expressed serious concerns and has repeatedly condemned traditional socialism and Marxism. Major papal documents such as Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) and Pope Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Ano (1931) explain why the economic, political, and philosophical systems of socialism and Marxism conflict with the Catholic faith.
For example, the Church teaches that human beings have a right to private property. It is natural and essential for human freedom, whereas traditional socialism and Marxism seek to eliminate or collectivize it. Additionally, socialism and Marxism are rooted in a materialistic view of history that denies God, the soul, and God-given human dignity. Furthermore, the collectivization of power and means of distribution by the government stifles human agency and creativity. Finally, Catholic Social Teaching relies on the principle of subsidiarity, meaning that higher organizations (like the government) should not take away what individuals and smaller groups can do on their own.
With all that said, it is helpful to remember that the Church has also condemned unfettered capitalism (capitalism without guard rails), which tends to exploit workers, promotes greed, and creates severe economic inequality. One could argue that the best economic system is a free market that drives wealth creation, yet remains subordinated to human dignity, justice, solidarity, and the common good. In other words, an economic system with minimal governmental control that values human initiative, rewards new ideas, sparks competition, all the while keeping an eye on caring for the poor and vulnerable by meeting basic material needs.
In short, while capitalism in America has had its problems, the belief that democratic socialism (and its looming shadow of Marxism) will bring about greater life, liberty and happiness for all may be one of greatest fairy tales we have heard in quite some time.
~St. Thérèse, pray for us!