“Is Marxism necessarily Atheistic?” Gustav Wetter, the Holy See and the Condemnation of Communism

Already condemned by the Holy Office in July 1949, Marxist influence was again targeted by a draft condemnation initiated by Paul VI in 1977–1978, documented by the archives of the Austrian Jesuit Gustav A. Wetter at the Archivio Storico of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Although the plan was never carried through, it is nevertheless indicative of the Holy See's concerns about communism, which was seen as a threat to the Catholic faith. Wetter, a specialist in Soviet Marxism who taught at the Gregorian University, was consulted in 1978 by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to give his opinion on this text condemning “Catholics who are seduced by Marxism”. This chapter presents the different versions of the condemnation text and the opinions of the other experts consulted, before taking a closer look at Wetter's criticism of this initiative. These contrasting opinions make it possible to consider the different doctrinal and political levels on which Catholic criticism of Marxist atheism is deployed. They also make it possible to identify several of the Italian targets of this text, which reacted in particular to the fading dynamism of the Cristiani per il socialismo movement and to the Catholic adherence in Italy to Berlinguer's policy of alliance, known as the Historic Compromise.