Posted on 03/14/2013 6:19:02 AM PDT by LucianOfSamasota
The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has called for an ethical response to solve the problem of social debt, saying that, not only do terrorism, repression and murder violate human rights, but also extreme poverty and the “unjust economic structures that give rise to great inequalities.”
Social debt is “immoral, unjust and illegitimate,” the cardinal said, emphasizing that this is especially true when it occurs “in a nation that has the objective conditions for avoiding or correcting such harm.” “Unfortunately,” he noted, it seems that those same countries “opt for exacerbating inequalities even more.”
Argentineans have the duty “to work to change the structural causes and personal or corporate attitudes that give rise to this situation (of poverty), and through dialogue reach agreements that allow us to transform this painful reality we refer to when we speak about social debt,” the prelate said.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
The problem of debt and social justice must be of concern to every sector of society, he added, including leaders in government, politics, finance, business, agriculture, industry, unions, the Church and other social organizations.
Not Liberation Theology; but rather a restructuring to allow more opportunity for the working poor? Hard to tell from what I've been able to find thus far.
He is not a socialist. But many on the Right act as if we should punish the poor and those who are imprisoned rather than work to help them transform themselves.
If we are hard-hearted we cannot build a decent and just society. We must live as God teaches us to live and set an example through good works to every one, particularly those most in need of it. Compassion and love cannot be built by a government; it can only come from people acting out of fear of God, not out of fear of the state.
There is no system that exacerbates extreme inequality of opportunity and thus promotes poverty more severely than a Marxist/socialist system. Such a system has been empirically established to consistently and repeatedly impoverish the vast majority of people under its control and concentrates privilege, wealth, and power in the hands of a central few.
In the United States we have laws that are enforced. They are revolutionary ~ and we think that's how things ought to be. The pope agrees. That doesn't mean we can count on him to endorse free markets.
Best cure for poverty=capitalism
Put it this way, it’s not charity to give away money taken at the point of a gun.
The Pope is in favor of the social market. That is a market that is tempered by ethics and a concern for the welfare of all. The Church is both against communism and laissez-faire capitalism.
Exactly. More wealth was created in the West in the period from the late 1700s through the early 1900s than at any other time or place in human history. And that is when Capitalism, in its “harshest” form, was in full force. Private charity is fine and eveyone should engage in it. But it should never be called “moral” for the government to take money from one person and give it to another person as a transfer payment or other benefit. That is simply a government policy and in many cases a horribly wrong government policy. I don’t know enough about this Pope to know if he supports private charity or is going to start going around saying that government has an obligation to hand out cash and other benefits to the poor. I hope he doesn’t.
The local news was talking about how he was into "social justice" otherwise know as socialism. Not sure were they got their information. If true, already I don't like him.
Its more than charity; its a social obligation to uplift your fellow man. But this originates with individuals ans society and not from the government. Catholic social justice is not the social justice identified with the Left, which thinks the state is the source of justice. The true source of justice is God.
Socialism makes everybody equally poor except those who rule.
I think that as the first Jesuit pope, he's a very interesting choice -- an aspect that seems to be glossed over by most of the MSM. I wouldn't be surprised if he had pretty much everyone "challenged" -- or extremely annoyed, depending on perspective -- before he's finished.
Well, no.
Exponentially more wealth was created in the last 50 years than in all of human history previously.
It is likely much of this wealth is built on a shaky foundation of government and private debt, but that doesn't mean the wealth wasn't created.
Admittedly, the industrial and scientific revolutions of the 18th through 20th centuries laid the foundation for post-WWII growth, but they didn't get much of the benefit.
Ugh.
We have no right to another’s labor, wealth, or property.
And in the 3779 verses in the four gospels, Jesus Christ NEVER comments on the state’s or society’s various methods for running economies or political systems, much less offer a prescription for preference for one over another.
Christ shows himself repeatedly to be sympathetic with the poor and sympathetic with the oppressed, but never does he offer prescriptions to deal with these worldly issues.
If we can extrapolate at all from the four gospels regarding the economic policies and practices of the state, it would be to suggest that Christ might theoretically eschew the state’s oppression of men by it political meddling in the free choices of men. But even this would mischaracterize Christ’s mission.
He came to save souls, not rearrange social structures.
He sounds quite like a re-distributionist. Gotta spread the wealth to pay off that social debt!
You’re the only person I know besides myself to point out the problem of Real Property Record Titles systems in the rest of the world. It was written up about 8 years ago, I think, in connection with the problem of fighting poverty in Egypt, a country where one might get a deed in the form of a bill-of-sale, but.........there’s no place to file it to perfect one’s property claim. However, I’d have thought that with South America and the natural follow-on from Spanish Law there would have been central registries for the recordation of deeds/mortgages, etc. And I’d have thought they’d have the infamous “Notarial” records systems. I know they do in Puerto Rico.
That is a sort of recollection I have from long ago.. can someone corroborate it for me?
Anyway... what could be MORE immoral and unethical than stealing from honest, hard-pressed and hard-working people to subsidize the amoral and irresponsible lives of 4th and 5th generation losers who WILL NOT take responsibility for themselves or their OWN, routinely bad choices???!!
>> But many on the Right act as if we should punish the poor
Seriously?
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