Pope attacks mega-salaries and wealth gap in peace message

Reuters ^ | Dec 12, 2014 | By Philip Pullella

[what's up]

Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.

He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

[catnipman]

I have the same advice for the Pope as I did for Henry Blodget:

Why don’t you set a good example for the rest of us and donate all but a subsistence portion of the Vatican wealth to the “poor”? You know, do your own small part toward achieving “equality”. Start with making yourself poor first, and then maybe you’ll have a basis for the necessary “moral superiority” to tell the rest of us how much money we should be allowed to keep.

[vbmoneyspender]

He talked about economic systems that he wants to change. If he wants to do that, he should resign as Pope and either run for political office in Argentina or become an economics professor.

And he might want to rethink the proposition that economic systems cause greed rather than human nature. When he says stuff like that he sounds like a foolish left-wing undergrad.

[Redmen4ever]

Regarding what the Pope should focus on: The Pope should certainly be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. IF the Gospel message is that we need big government to establish social justice in the world, thats what we should do. On the other hand, if that is not the Gospel message, then the question is how could the Pope be so wrong?

[Gay State Conservative]

It's obviously true that Christ made it abundantly clear that His followers were expected to be charitable...very charitable in fact.He did not,OTOH,demand that this charity be funneled through any government functionaries...”render unto Caesar”.I give to charity...*private* charities.Probably not as much as I should but I'll wager that,on a percentage basis,I'm more charitable than are/were the likes of the Osama Obama,the Clintons,the Gores,the Kennedys,the Reids,the Pelosis,etc.

[goat granny]

The pope/bishops etc should leave Caesars business to Caesar and tend to Gods business. They are to be Shepard's feeding Jesus lambs and spreading the gospel to the world..

[from occupied ga]

Her position was emotional, that all greed was bad.

Greed is a negative word and frequently used to misinform the ignorant. For example, if you work your backside off to get ahead and make a decent amount of money, the government (and the pope apparently) calls you "greedy" On the other hand if you're a government demagogue who has never worked a day of your life in the private sector and you're calling for those who do work to "put some skin in the game" you're not greedy even though you're stealing from those who earned it. Likewise, if you're a worthless drone who by choice sits around, drunk, high, watching daytime TV, smoking dope and cigarettes, scratching off lotto tickets and squirting our dependent children to get a bigger check, why then you're not greedy at all.

The use of the word greed in the context that the pope and some of the posters here use it is an absolute moral inversion of the reality.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Wonder if the Pope is about to have the garage sale of all garage sales to aid the poor.

Rumor has it that John Paul II planned to do this in the early days of his papacy, but faced a full-on rebellion from the Vatican insiders.

[MrB]

As the wife of “The Jerk” said,
it’s not the money,
it’s all the STUUUUFFFFF.

[circlecity]

"Now take heaven and hell. People are divided by giving them their just deserts. Those who were evil and violated God's law get the punishment. People who were good get to go to heaven."

If this were true nobody would get to heaven. I try to live a Godly life and the longer I walk on a Christian path the more I realize that the last thing I want is for God to give me what I deserve. I need a Savior. And God, in his grace, has given me one. God has promised to treat me as Jesus' deserves and to wash away my sin. It is the only hope, but a hope available to anyone if they will only reprent and accept Jesus with all their heart.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Now, now, now. This is simply a very bad translation of what he actually said... /s

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Without producers there is nothing for enlightened re-distributors like the pope to redistribute.

[what's up]

Why should it matter that he didn't mention any specific nations?

Capitalism helps the poor no matter where one lives.

[Scarlet7]

Did he condemn capitalism or was it unbridled consumerism?

[frogjerk]

What Reuter's says the Pope said:

He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

What the Pope exactly said:

Moreover, if on the one hand we are seeing a reduction in absolute poverty, on the other hand we cannot fail to recognize that there is a serious rise in relative poverty, that is, instances of inequality between people and groups who live together in particular regions or in a determined historical-cultural context. In this sense, effective policies are needed to promote the principle of fraternity, securing for people – who are equal in dignity and in fundamental rights – access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology so that every person has the opportunity to express and realize his or her life project and can develop fully as a person.

The MSM strikes again.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“One also sees the need for policies which can lighten an excessive imbalance between incomes. “

Direct marxist quote from your link...

The founders of our country wrote of the pursuit of happiness - not the guarantee of happiness.

One person stays on govt assistance their whole life. Another becomes an engineer or doctor. NOW, the pope wants policies to minimize the results of those life choices... ?

[Uncle Miltie]

"requires de­cisions, programs, mechanisms and process­es specifically geared to a better distribution of income"

That does it. He's a SOCIALIST.

I don't care how you try to parse or justify that one. He's done in my book. A leftist socialist totalitarian centralizer.

WHO gets to decide his "better distribution of income?" Precisely who is the elevated superior omniscient decider of "better"?

G-d would not elevate decisions above individuals to superior individuals. That's slavery and antithetical to the prime message of Exodus.

I reject this Pope.

[Colonel_Flagg]

"calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology."

"IBTPWM"

"In before 'The Pope Was Mistranslated'".

This is starting to get tiresome.

[skeeter]

Rooters, eh? I guess I’ll wait for an accurate translation.

[what's up]

Asking for more gov't intervention because of income inequality is a turning from free markets i.e. capitalism.

We already have too much Gov't intrusion...the Pope is calling for even more. This is not capitalism.

[MrB]

You only made it “in” by one and a half minutes.