Posted on 01/07/2014 11:51:33 AM PST by justiceseeker93
“Let us leave a spare place at our table: a place for those who lack the basics, who are alone.” - Pope Francis via Twitter January 7, 2014
In three short phrases, Pope Francis has once again taken the lead in advocating for economic justice and fairness. Where not long ago a battle raged over the growing and disproportionate wealth of the so-called “one percent,” the new 77-year old leader of the Catholic church has gained more support in nine months than the Occupy Wall Street movement or Fast Food Forward have in five years.
This new found papal popularity is not going unnoticed, especially in Washington, where lawmakers - particularly Democrats - are eager to to find fresh support for their core causes but also to counter their own lofty disapproval ratings. As my colleague Jeff Macke and I discuss in the attached video, the politicization of the Pope is real and cannot be ignored.
“It is not a surprise that the left and the right are now seeking openly to affiliate with this Pope,” Macke says, fresh from his own eye-opening trip to the Vatican.
In fact, a recent New York Times article quotes Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as saying “We have a strong ally on our side,” in reference to a raft of policy efforts in the works that coincide with the writings and teachings Pope Francis espouses.
Of course, his Holiness has numerous advantages over his elected counterparts when it comes to addressing issues such as income inequality or raising the minimum wage. Some would argue that as a foreign head of state representing a billion people (90% of which are not American), the Pope should not intercede in the U.S. political process. And yet, when the Pope includes the following four sub-titles in his most recent Exhortation, few dared to criticize his stance:
No to an economy of exclusion No to the idolatry of money No to a financial system that rules rather than serves No to the inequality which spawns violence
Even mainstream theories have been addressed in his short Papacy where he blasts “trickle-down economics” as being a factually unconfirmed belief. “This opinion,” the Pope writes, “expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power,” adding that “the excluded are still waiting.”
It’s important to note that all of this is happening at the exact time that the country is being forced to reconcile the fact that the original “War on Poverty” declared by President Johnson in 1964, is turning fifty, but that there’s still a lot more work to do. The White House has already tagged job creation and better wages as key areas of focus for the mid-term, and will surely give both prominent play in the upcoming State of the Union address.
To be sure, Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” is clearly popular and politicians of all persuasions are as eager to side with him as they are reluctant to stand against him, but it has yet to be seen if his message results in any actual legislative action.
All of a sudden, we're being told that 'Rat policies and the Catholic Church are in sync with each other, the implication being that good Catholics must vote 'Rat in the upcoming election. What about the 'Rats "war on religion" that has been consistent in their ideology for decades? And for Catholics specifically, what about the current suits against Obamacare by Catholic groups?
"All of a sudden"?
Link to article and video:
uote “Even mainstream theories have been addressed in his short Papacy where he blasts “trickle-down economics” as being a factually unconfirmed belief. “This opinion,” the Pope writes, “expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power,”
um... yo your commie holiness!
Trickle down economics has NOTHING to do with “the goodness of those wielding economic power” It has to do with the FACT that people with money put that money to use building businesses or buying stuff when ends up “trickling down” to everyone else in the form of jobs, cheaper goods, or payment their products and/or services. Trickle down economics has NOTHING to do with CHARITY or ones “goodness”
This commie pope knows absolutely NOTHING about how free market capitalist systems work!
Eh, it doesn’t help that the Pope said ‘trickle down economics’ are bad, thus mocking Reagan’s successful and poverty stopping policy, aligning with the pro abort dems.
It’s his words in para 54 through 56 of his letter from last month.
If not for the evil forces of capitalism, the catholic church would not be so wealthy.
Is the Dope Catholic?
Everyone is going to heaven and true islam is peaceful.
What an intellect.
Flashy robes don’t make this doddering old Argentine hippy into anything more than a clown tripping and stumbling across the world stage.
OK, I see what you mean. This business of Democrats trying to appeal to Catholic voters by linking their politics Church doctrine isn't quite new. But the 'Rats are trying to take political advantage of the pronouncements of this relatively new Pope.
Without capitalism, there is nothing for the socialists/Communists to "redistribute."
Soviet Russia had empty store shelves, but at least they had "income equality."
Are we sure this pope wasn’t part of the Leftist branch of the Catholic church in South America? Many priests were supporters of the Communist governments there.
The appeals are nothing new, but neither are the voting tendencies of Catholics. Are you suggesting that the Pope's pronouncements are being mistranslated?
Most social-justice talkers don't get down into the weeds and consider the practical implications of their assertions, because they have no experience of making a living by serving customers.
The irony is that Francis was a martyr to anti-Communism in South America. The pro-Communist Jesuits hated him for denouncing Liberation Theology (Marxism with a Catholic façade), and demoted him to running a parish in a small, rural town. JPII heard about him and made him Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Francis also preached against same-sex "marriage" and so forth in Argentina, saying the campaign for it had its origins in hell.
The fact is, Americans have ALWAYS had a “place at the table” for the less fortunate, and certainly needn’t be lectured on that regard by somebody who runs one of the world’s most affluent and successful business operations. Perhaps less artwork and guilded architecture in his own operation would allow for more charity worldwide in that regard.
The problem here in America is that we have a decreasing percentage of the population able and willing to work for a living and
1) an increasing percentage of people who either outright refuse to do so and are deteremined to live on the forced charity of others,
2) people who sneak across our borders and earn a living here while not contributing towards the social security safety net funded by working citizens, and
3)those who have lost their jobs due to the failure of government to create an atmosphere more conducive towards retaining American jobs in America.
Nonetheless, we still manage to adequately feed, cloth, house and educate the overwhelming mass of our population.
We can’t do this for the entire world even though American charity overseas far exceeds that of most other nations by far.
The College of Cardinals selected one of the very least qualified candidates to occupy the Chair of St. Peter in many a decade.
The roman church has backed the lefties in this country for the better part of a century. There is nothing new in this. The rats and the ‘social’ welfare catholics have been beating this dead horse forever
I hear more authentic Catholic Social Teaching from Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and Alex Jones on any given day than I’ve heard from this Pope in the last six months—or from the American bishops in the last ninety years.
Here is authentic Catholic Social Teaching:
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
What is usually called “Catholic Social Teaching” has been one vast, confusing, pointless, misleading safari into amateur utopianism and fanciful pseudo-economics. Here in America, it has been a rhetorical smokescreen for Democrats wearing bishops’ mitres. This is why so many Catholic bishops (Dolan, Wuerl) still can’t get enough of snuggling up to pro-abortion apostate Catholics.
Good point. I'd venture a guess that the Pope's remarks - and the Democrats' mantra - about the need for "social justice" or reducing the "wealth gap" are less relevant to the United States than just about any other country in the world. The poor in America generally enjoy a higher standard of living than in any other country in the world - which is a major reason why the US is so attractive to Third World immigrants.
Actually, the Catholic Church was pretty conservative and anti-Communist until Pope John XXXIII screwed up everything for it. He was the beginning of the end.
Somebody must have switched brains on him, or there is an equivalent to “Potomac Fever” in Vatican City.
A place at our table. Yeah, that's Marxist statism for sure. As we know, only the government has tables.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.