There are several reasons why this question will never really matter, and an almost infinite plenitude of reasons it is an absurd one in the first place...
...In other words, you don’t have to actually partake in any communist politics to qualify as a communist in the United States, you just have to show insufficient satisfaction with capitalism.
...
Capitalism has no special affinity with Christianity, just as socialism is not reserved strictly for atheists. (Indeed, Christian socialist parties are commonelsewhere in the world, and have enjoyed a powerful presence in the United States in past periods.) In fact, much of the philosophical underpinning of contemporary pro-capitalist arguments arose in direct opposition to traditional Christian teaching on property ownership. As Cambridge professor Peter Garnsey points out in his book Thinking About Property, Enlightenment luminary John Locke makes a fine test case: By claiming that virtually unlimited individual accumulation of private property was a natural right, Locke contradicted centuries of Christian writing on the nature and purpose of property, which identified it as a provisional and highly contingent civil right. (Unsurprisingly given this type of reversal, Locke was no fan of Catholics.)
Suspicion of the types of accumulation that characterize capitalism—including the massive build-up of wealth among a small number of unimaginably rich plutocrats—is therefore more common to Christianity than the unreserved embrace of the same that is now typical of American right-wingers. Rather than asking if Pope Francis’ positions on reducing inequality and protecting the environment are products of communism, it would be much wiser and more insightful to ask if conservative rejection of environmentalism and egalitarianism are really products of Christianity. This would at least provide context for the tidal wave of rueful tears that will undoubtedly follow the publication of Francis’ encyclical on the environment, which will rankle the pontiff’s critics not because Francis’ thought is communist, but because it is Christian.
