Posted on 10/22/2009 7:34:31 AM PDT by kronos77
Amid the worst recession in generations, Karl Marx, who famously described religion as “the opium of the people”, got a thumbs up from the Vatican overturning a century of Catholic hostility to his creed.
Marx, who predicted that capitalism would be destroyed by its internal contradictions, has joined Galileo, Charles Darwin and Oscar Wilde on a growing list of historical figures to have undergone an unlikely reappraisal by the Roman Catholic Church, The Times newspaper said on Thursday.
The British daily, quoting the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said Marx’s early critiques of capitalism had highlighted the “social alienation” felt by the “large part of humanity” that remained excluded from economic and political decision-making.
Amid signs of recovery in global financial markets, Christian leaders have flayed the capitalist system for displaying a lack of moral values, arguing that ethical debates needs to be given greater prominence.
Georg Sans, a German-born professor of the history of contemporary philosophy at the pontifical Gregorian University, argues that Marx’s work remained especially relevant today as mankind was seeking “a new harmony” between its needs and the natural environment.
The report quoted Prof. Sans as saying that Marx’s theories may help to explain the enduring issue of income inequality within capitalist societies.
(Excerpt) Read more at beta.thehindu.com ...
Crap analysis. Viewed in absolute income terms, even the bottom is better off in capitalism, not even counting the personal freedom.
The above is one of the top five reasons I am no longer Catholic.
Too many in the Catholic leadership break the First Commandment by worshiping communism rather than God. And...There is absolutely no way for the ordinary layman to influence reform.
Hitler said the same things about capitalism, too.
Ping for later.
Always gotta get a slam in at the church somehow. It's part of being a patriotic Englishman. Besides, them Papists 'r poaching from the C of E, now.
Lesson number one: Never trust anything a British paper says about the Vatican.
Lesson number two: Not everything written in the Vatican newspaper is ex cathedra. Basically none of it is.
Nothing to see here. Some Europeans like Marx. Big deal.
Marx does NOT promote these values. Marx believed in centralized, non-democratic economic and political decision making.
These are democratic values in a FREE society, the OPPOSITE of marxism.
Duh.
What are these people thinking?? Marxism is SO 19th century...
A ‘hindu blog’ quotes a British paper quoting a Vatican paper.
One hell of a smoking gun right there. One quote from a lefty prelate (without the cure of souls) two years ago, and suddenly we got headlines like “The Church has decreed eight new cardinal sins and accepts abortion!!!”
Why do I get a weird feeling that this is going to be the same?
The Catholic religion is becoming a communist front, much as the Orthodox religion in Russia was.
Yes, let's ignore Jesus' "theories" in favor of Marx. Dummasses.
"The poor you will always have with you"
The “winnowing” is going on right now.
Join a good, literal bible believing protestant church.
For anyone who is still confused, let them consider that the words of a Papal encyclical trump anything said by a university professor in a newspaper.
Exactly. bttt
Horsefeathers.
And so it proves.
“Georg Sans, a German-born professor of the history of contemporary philosophy at the pontifical Gregorian University...”
The man isn’t even a priest. But how many FReepers will declare this the End of the World based on the word of a nobody with no authority? And worse - gleefully repeat this nonsense?
The others were not responsible for 150 years of global misery and tens of millions of deaths
Marx was.
>>This is why I no longer attend church, and may in fact leave the Catholic Church entirely. Liberalism is destroying that faith, just like it destroys everything else it touches. <<
Did you read “Charity in Truth”?
I’ve just started but I don’t see anything Marxlike. It’s about charity individually. Maybe I’m missing it, but I’m not seeing “Government controlled” charity yet. I’m not going to take the word of the MSM without actually reading the document myself.
I’m not sure where you are but if you need help finding a more conservative parish, Catholic FReepers can help you.
But Catholicism has tended to liberalism, and liberalism blurs into socialism.
And socialism is merely communism by the glassful.
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