[aMorePerfectUnion]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

[Don Corleone]

Not pronouncing a doctrine of faith or morals so basically he is speaking for himself. Its expected of a Jesuit. They are always in the forefront of trouble. Been a wart on the nose of the Church for 500 years. “Gods Army?”

[pogo101]

I’m sure the current pope means well, but he doesn’t have the “grew up around it” familiarity with full-blown socialism like his two predecessors had. Bergoglio, in contrast, thinks the problem is that we haven’t gotten socialist ENOUGH.

[GreyFriar]

I liked this line I saw a couple of days ago on Ed Morrisey’s Hot Air Column:

“How do you know Pope Francis is being misquoted? His lips are moving.”

Please read Ed’s column and why it is best to ignore the MSM which is NOT Pope Francis’ friend; he suggests that people read the speech rather than the coverage::

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/09/pope-francis-zacchaeus-and-legitimate-redistribution/

[ClearBlueSky]

Is he willing to start with the Vatican? Lots of priceless valuables there, gold, gems. Are all Cardinals ready to live poorly and ‘redistribute’ the wealth? Bet not. I’m Catholic and this socialist garbage infuriates me. Let ANYONE who spews this start with THEMSELVES! Lead by example or shut up. Pope Francis included.

[G Larry]

Equality of opportunity, not of outcome.
Charity is NOT a government function, especially given it’s abuse as a vote buying gimmick to create and sustain dependency on the government and undermine personal responsibility.

[Dr. Thorne]

Jorge Bergoglio has never been poor. He has never had to scramble to make a living or feed a family. He may have seen poverty, but he has never had to feel the pain and despair of being unable to feed your own kids. It’s easy to be a Socialist from a distance. Socialism is a beautiful lie that never works, but it is appealing to people who are motivated by their emotions rather than reason. This guy is just not very bright.

[dfwgator]

Halt! Halt! ..... Gentlemen, ladies, bring out your valuables please. Come along sir, come along. Come along, madam, come along. Oh, is that all you've got ... well, he's got much more than you ... so you'd better have some of his ... ... sorry... pick them up in a moment... there's about oh, what, nine down there... so you must have about... oh, he's still got lots... oh you've got what? ... you've got more than he started with... so if I give you some of those ... well now, look ... have you got a bit of jewellry? If I give you that one and you have some of his coins ... is that another box? Were you trying to hide it? Well, that's nice! Right! Now. I've got a tiara ... you've got one... you've got one of the boxes... you've got one... anyone else got a tiara? Take your hat off! ... Oh, honestly, it's absolutely pointless trying to do this if you're going to cheat. It really is awful of you ..

[ALPAPilot]

Okay, here is the entire speech

I thank all of you, who are primarily responsible for the international system, for the great efforts being made to ensure world peace, respect for human dignity, the protection of persons, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, and harmonious economic and social development.

The results of the Millennium Development Goals, especially in terms of education and the decrease in extreme poverty, confirm the value of the work of coordination carried out by this Chief Executives Board. At the same time, it must be kept in mind that the world’s peoples deserve and expect even greater results.

An essential principle of management is the refusal to be satisfied with current results and to press forward, in the conviction that those gains are only consolidated by working to achieve even more. In the case of global political and economic organization, much more needs to be achieved, since an important part of humanity does not share in the benefits of progress and is in fact relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Future Sustainable Development Goals must therefore be formulated and carried out with generosity and courage, so that they can have a real impact on the structural causes of poverty and hunger, attain more substantial results in protecting the environment, ensure dignified and productive LABOR for all, and provide appropriate protection for the family, which is an essential element in sustainable human and social development. Specifically, this involves challenging all forms of injustice and resisting the “economy of exclusion”, the “throwaway culture” and the “culture of death” which nowadays sadly risk becoming passively accepted.

With this in mind, I would like to remind you, as representatives of the chief agencies of global cooperation, of an incident which took place two thousand years ago and is recounted in the Gospel of Saint Luke (19:1-10). It is the encounter between Jesus Christ and the rich tax collector Zacchaeus, as a result of which Zacchaeus made a radical decision of sharing and justice, because his conscience had been awakened by the gaze of Jesus. This same spirit should be at the beginning and end of all political and economic activity. The gaze, often silent, of that part of the human family which is cast off, left behind, ought to awaken the conscience of political and economic agents and lead them to generous and courageous decisions with immediate results, like the decision of Zacchaeus. Does this spirit of solidarity and sharing guide all our thoughts and actions, I ask myself?

Today, in concrete terms, an awareness of the dignity of each of our brothers and sisters whose life is sacred and inviolable from conception to natural death must lead us to share with complete freedom the goods which God’s providence has placed in our hands, material goods but also intellectual and spiritual ones, and to give back generously and lavishly whatever we may have earlier unjustly refused to others.

The account of Jesus and Zacchaeus teaches us that above and beyond economic and social systems and theories, there will always be a need to promote generous, effective and practical openness to the needs of others. Jesus does not ask Zacchaeus to change jobs nor does he condemn his financial activity; he simply inspires him to put everything, FREELY yet immediately and indisputably, at the service of others. Consequently, I do not hesitate to state, as did my predecessors (cf. JOHN PAUL II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 42-43; Centesimus Annus, 43; BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 6; 24-40), that equitable economic and social progress can only be attained by joining scientific and technical abilities with an unfailing commitment to solidarity accompanied by a generous and disinterested spirit of gratuitousness at every level. A contribution to this equitable development will also be made both by international activity aimed at the integral human development of all the world’s peoples and by the LEGITIMATE redistribution of economic BENEFITS by the State, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.

Consequently, while encouraging you in your continuing efforts to coordinate the activity of the international agencies, which represents a service to all humanity, I urge you to work together in promoting a true, worldwide ethical mobilization which, beyond all differences of religious or political convictions, will spread and put into practice a shared ideal of fraternity and solidarity, especially with regard to the poorest and those most excluded.

So the leftists in the media come out and interpret this as "take wealth from the rich and giver to the poor." When the Pope uses the word "legitimate", why is that not interpreted as in accordance with the mosaic law? Specifically the prohibition of stealing and coveting? The Pope makes use of the word "freely." Why did the leftist media bury that idea.

Why isn't the interpretation that governments are suppose to reform the system that makes the political class wealthy at the expense of the common man?

Isn't Harry Reid the present day Zacchaeus? The one that should give his money away?

Can you really read this speech and come away thinking that what the Pope is advocating is that Harry Reid should take more money away from hard working private sector people so he can BENEFIT his friends at places like Solendra?

Now I'm not saying that the Pope is a dyed in the wool free marketeer. But the government does have a proper role: enforcing contracts, prohibiting fraud, etc.

[quadrant]

The man's an Argentine and a South American Jesuit to boot. Its unlikely his ideas on economics will make much sense.

[faucetman]

Blah, Blah, Blah, and world peace. What a meaningless clap trap of platitudes and wishful thinking. I think the pope actually thinks he just accomplished something, not.

It comes down to “OPM”. The pope wants to solve poverty with “Other People's Money”.

The MEGA RICH Catholic Church needs to divest itself of all the gold, all the real estate, all the art, all of it's possessions, and THEN hold your hand out.

Like the pope said:

“Today, in concrete terms, an awareness of the dignity of each of our brothers and sisters whose life is sacred and inviolable from conception to natural death must lead us to share with complete freedom the goods which God’s providence has placed in our hands, material goods but also intellectual and spiritual ones, and to give back generously and lavishly whatever we may have earlier unjustly refused to others.”

I agree. The Catholic Church can go first.

The Protestant Mega Churches can go second. The wealth of “the church” should be SPENT! Yes, on the poor. A leg up not a hand out. On the feeble minded, the depressed, the needy, the dependent, the old, the infirmed, the lost.

[mjp]

Pope Francis demands wealth redistribution.

In a free society with a rational culture, the needs of some do not justify the initiation of force to violate the God-given natural rights of others. Also, the feelings of some do not justify the violation of the rights of others.

[windsorknot]

Disappointing if true. Forced wealth redistribution at the point of a gun is not charity.

[LibWhacker]