“The glory days of the Church were the 13th century. That’s the model this pope is invoking — no capitalism, no individual initiative for profit, everything (theoretically) for the good of the social order as defined by the Church. “
Not so long ago ( before the Drug Cartels became the government) Mexico was completely subjugated by the RC Church. All you had to do is drive through all the dirt poor outlying towns and villages and the one thing that struck you was the relative opulence of the local RC Church building. The Church was bleeding an abjectly poor populace and with it’s doctrines, kept them all barefoot and pregnant. Shameful.
“Not so long ago ( before the Drug Cartels became the government) Mexico was completely subjugated by the RC Church. All you had to do is drive through all the dirt poor outlying towns and villages and the one thing that struck you was the relative opulence of the local RC Church building. The Church was bleeding an abjectly poor populace and with it’s doctrines, kept them all barefoot and pregnant. Shameful.”
Which is why the Socialist Mexican Oligarchs allowed Trotsky to live in Mexico. Which is why Catholic priests were taken from Churches and placed before firing squads. Which is why Andy Garcia was involved in a movie showing how the Catholic Church was persecuted in Mexico under Oligarch governments. You need so stop reading the Jack Chick tracts, pal.
Also, this Pope in his comments was coming from the Distributist wing of economic philosophy which was promulgated by Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XIV. It also had proponents such as Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc of England and Dorothy Day in the U.S. The idea is that distributists own their own means of production (such as a plumber who owns his tools). They ARE not against private ownership—they insist on it. The philosophy rejects an economic system in which funds are held by enormous banks at high interest and would rather see things like credit unions in which the funds of those in the credit union are used to distribute to the members with decreased interest rates.
In Africa and India at this moment, people are being lent funds as low as $25 and starting their own businesses which benefits their communities and allows them to increase capital and to lend to others. So, appreciate that this Pope is speaking to an audience of the world and not to only the U.S.
But without the right for a person to keep what he works for, you get very little work, and you get the bad conditions you describe.
You don’t know much about Mexico, do you? Mexico was under the rule of strongly an anti-Catholic Masonic regime since the Mexican Revolution in 1917. Under the PRI they held one party rule until 2000. Between 1926 and 1929 they fought the brutal Cristero War trying to destroy the Catholic Church. The PRI is back in power today. Put aside your prejudges.
Considering the Church was basically outlawed and driven underground for years in Mexico where do you get your information?
Completely subjugated? You have a strange definition of not-so-long-ago, The last explicitly pro-Catholic government was under Maximillian I from 1864-1867. From 1917 through the 30’s Mexico was ranked with the USSR and Republican Spain when it came to friendliness towards the Church—complete with firing squads for the priests.