Communism is Marxism- Leninism, and involves ideas like the dictatorship of the proletariat through the vanguard party, hostility towards independent civic institutions, democratic centralism (the necessity of toeing the party line once decided upon), and hostility to the norms of bourgeois democracy (like civil liberties).
The Roman Catholic Church has orders that function through common ownership of property, and the communal life under a strict rule, but the "secular" hierarchy (priests, bishops, and other officials not bound by a particular order) draw salaries like everyone else, according to seniority and official position, roughly. It is strictly hierarchical, although according to a meritocratic rather than aristocratic principle, rather than egalitarian. Its economic ideas have evolved over time, but the closest thing to a comprehensive modern expression of them came when Leo XIII authored the encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (On Capital and Labor):
"Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal. The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property. This being established, we proceed to show where the remedy sought for must be found.....
....32 The foremost duty, therefore, of the rulers of the State should be to make sure that the laws and institutions, the general character and administration of the commonwealth, shall be such as of themselves to realize public well-being and private prosperity. This is the proper scope of wise statesmanship and is the work of the rulers. Now a State chiefly prospers and thrives through moral rule, well-regulated family life, respect for religion and justice, the moderation and fair imposing of public taxes, the progress of the arts and of trade, the abundant yield of the land—through everything, in fact, which makes the citizens better and happier. Hereby, then, it lies in the power of a ruler to benefit every class in the State, and amongst the rest to promote to the utmost the interests of the poor; and this in virtue of his office, and without being open to suspicion of undue interference—since it is the province of the commonwealth to serve the common good. And the more that is done for the benefit of the working classes by the general laws of the country, the less need will there be to seek for special means to relieve them."
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