Letters From the Underworld

Excerpts from Bishop Fulton Sheen's genius lesson on communism through the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The communist individual:

- loses distinction between right and wrong

- they do not merely deny God, the challenge God, they set themselves up as an absolute

- all that matters is the party state; the regime that professes to love the poor but tramples on them, no concern for the individual person. (all must be equal materially in their twisted minds equals the worth of a person - no property rights, no right to life, no higher education for the masses, only those in power who will make the decisions for the masses)

- suggests a system of spying, every member of society spies on the others and it is his duty to inform against them.

- all are slaves equal in their slavery (all commerce is equal)

- the moment you have family ties or love, you get the desire for property, communism will destroy that desire.

- will stifle every genius in its infancy.

- reduce all to its common denominator

- 'only the necessary is necessary' is the motto of the communist world

- absolute submission, absolute loss of individuality

- every 30 years the world will need a shock as a precaution from boredom, the dictator will give them this shock and they will begin eating each other up.

Men are open to two ends:

- the inspiration of Grace

- to the devil himself

Dostoevsky learned in Siberia that both prisoner & guard were open to Grace or the devil. There are men who wanted to do evil for the sake of evil, even to make good evil, as a result they became cruel.

Two periods of history for the communist:

- our ascent from the guerrilla to the death of God

- From the death of God to the making of a new earth through communism

A social system evil men create.

“If someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth and that in reality the truth were outside of Christ, then I should prefer to remain with Christ rather than with the truth.”

― Fyodor Dostoevsky

'only in Christ I must repose'

Did he despair?

No, he believed one day these devils would be pushed back.

Russia will sit at the feet of Christ and learn His Gospel.