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Pope Francis demands 'legitimate redistribution' of wealth
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 05/09/2014 | NICOLE WINFIELD

Posted on 05/09/2014 7:15:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the "economy of exclusion" that is taking hold today.

Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who met in Rome this week.

Latin America's first pope has frequently lashed out at the injustices of capitalism and the global economic system that excludes so much of humanity, though his predecessors have voiced similar concerns.

On Friday, Francis called for the United Nations to promote a "worldwide ethical mobilization" of solidarity with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: catholic; fascism; fascist; fascistchurch; fascistpope; francis; incomeequality; incomeinequality; liberationtheology; marxism; pope; popefrancis; popethefascist; redistribution; romancatholicism; socialism; totalbs; vatican; wealth
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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

About 400 years ago you would have been burned for saying that.


141 posted on 05/09/2014 9:07:12 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor

Thou shalt not steal

Ex 20:13

142 posted on 05/09/2014 9:10:11 AM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: Rennes Templar
I'm reminded of James Chapter 2.

15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed” but does nothing about their physical needs EXCEPT TO GIVE THEM A GUITAR, what good is it?

 

143 posted on 05/09/2014 9:10:29 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Alex Murphy; metmom

Pope Lenin I.


144 posted on 05/09/2014 9:13:25 AM PDT by Gamecock (The covenant is a stunning blend of law and love. (TK))
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To: The Great RJ

What’s more, the government takes from people who are the “working poor”, barely making their mortgages, to give to people who sit on their fat azzes when they’re not lying on them breeding one welfare check after another (while the working sucker being extorted can’t afford to have kids).

This rhetoric about “the poor” is a sham, at least in America, where “the poor” (the gimmes, not the working poor) have cable teevee, A/C, are more often than not obese, and have smart phones which they use to network looting mobs.


145 posted on 05/09/2014 9:14:28 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: southernindymom; Pearls Before Swine

Our Holy Father is unfortunately using the language of the Left to speak about charity administered in terms of political concepts that lean toward what the West would clearly call *dangerously close to Marx and Marxism.

If socialism has histrorically been opposed and deplored by the Church, as the incubator for Marxism and communism—anathema to the Church, then Pope Francis continues to sound quite different from the Church, if not BE quite different, seen departing from the historical Church on matters of social justice themes, striking an independent track from the historical Church.

That will not fly in the West, among most Catholics. In the West, those Catholics who agree with this political verbage are now outright socialists/Marxist Catholics.

I had to accept some time ago that the Church is infiltrated with Marxists. The 60’s seminaries were subversive and served as the beginning of deep trouble for the Church in the US.


146 posted on 05/09/2014 9:16:47 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CHRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Correct, it’s not an isolated remark, it’s part of a whole pattern.


147 posted on 05/09/2014 9:17:58 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: livius

I might agree. I think it’s too easy to say “he’s an Argentinian statist” though (just as it’s probably too easy to say “he’s just calling for more charity from all of us, voluntary charity not forced redistribution but voluntary”)

The fact of the matter is, he used the phrase “redistribution by the State”. However he also said in relation, “legitimate” and “economic benefits” (IOW not simply “money”).

So, it seems to me what he is saying is, the state should guarantee that every person has an equal opportunity to earn a decent living, and where inequality exists, such as crony capitalism, this should be abolished by the state.

So in this sense he isn’t a “statist” but he is in the sense that he believes the state has a role to play in guaranteeing opportunity for all. (Although I don’t agree that makes one a statist, I can see where one might think and reasonably argue it does).

Really, what we have here, (again I think), is he is strongly promoting in more concrete terms than prior popes, the idea of “subsidiarity”, which is that the state’s job is to guarantee that nothing interfere with local efforts toward human improvement.

In other words very close to the American experiment but not quite in that it assigns a role to the state the US Constitution does not. But it’s a rather small difference I would argue as the ultimate goal is the same: to rid individuals and families of state control, a control that would and does eventually dehumanize them.

Subsidiarity seeks to primarily protect the individual and small local group (family, etc), even at the cost (if necessary) of “free” enterprise. (Although the proponent of subsidiarity would argue , and I agree, it doesn’t work against capitalism per se, rather against crony capitalism and/or capitalism that seeks exploitation of people as a resource, not as partners in the enterprise, which some, with vested interest in same or simply the selfish, would interpret as opposition to capitalism in total)

The point to return to is his use of the word “redistribution” in the context of the state. This interpretation can’t be avoided. However I would submit this is where his Argentinian background would be properly understood as having an influence.

In other words he is speaking to all the Latin American countries where crony capitalism runs amok, and is urging in all such countries where such oppression is seen, the state should step in to redistribute the economic benefit garnered via human exploitation (which is what crony capitalism is). And this redistribution should not be to take money from the rich and give to the poor, rather it should be a redistribution of economic “benefit”, such that other people, rather than just those who have government friends, can start businesses and earn livings for themselves, through their own hard work. Rather than being enslaved by those in their own government who, by favoritism shown to their employers by the state, enable only some to prosper economically, but not all.

So this isn’t Marxist. I should hope that would be clear. If anything “political” it’s “individualist”.


148 posted on 05/09/2014 9:18:25 AM PDT by FourtySeven (47)
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To: Pecos
The only thing wrong with your logic is that “giving” is voluntary (being necessary for blessings to be given), whereas “taxes” are mandatory and offer no such benefit

Ummmm...that was my point exactly.

149 posted on 05/09/2014 9:22:25 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan (My tagline is in the shop.)
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To: Responsibility2nd
One or two comments might be overlooked. Eight or ten remarks might be chalked up to a language translation that didn't quite get done right. But dozens and dozens of remarks and speeches over many weeks and months make it clear: The Pope is a Marxist.
Imagine the Pope regularly talks about the poor - big shock, so did Jesus. But I notice you abandoned the remarks at hand to obfuscate. So allow me to school you...

Pope Francis: ‘Marxist ideology is wrong’

I hope you don't mind, Responsibility2nd(but little else) since you use "die-hard catholics", if I borrow your means of trying to label the Pope by the number of his statements to see if posts can be taken seriously or if they come from a Catholic Hater...

Number of times posted in this thread, Responsibility2nd: 8

150 posted on 05/09/2014 9:23:25 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (Land of the Free and the home of the Brave!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

what translation is that?


151 posted on 05/09/2014 9:25:27 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: DManA

The Vatican has it’s own bank.


152 posted on 05/09/2014 9:25:36 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: SeekAndFind
Glad this is not the religion forum, where my response to this would get me called a "hater." This is entirely predictable considering his resume. I sure found his ascension suspicious.

How long before he is making deals on same sex marriage and abortion to get access to all that money that belongs to other people?

The Pope of the Nine Commandments.

153 posted on 05/09/2014 9:25:56 AM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: demshateGod

Perhaps, but the dogma of papal infallibility was instituted in the 1800s by Pope Pius IX. Most recent popes including John XXIII and Benedict XVI have effectively renounced it.


154 posted on 05/09/2014 9:26:55 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: 1010RD

RE: He is speaking to Third World Countries, ruled by plutocracaies....

...

Then he needs to say that. I am willing to be deeply contrite to the point of shame, if he is just a simple man out of his element, a victim of Argentinian Marxism which breeds poverty, but the West is crumbling in their Christianity and this stuff is attractive to our enemies.

By now, Pope Francis must surely be informed that his pronouncements are either too confusing to interpret, too shocking for words, too alligned with the words, terms, and general direction of the dangerous Left.

He is shaking the Church in the West. God help us.


155 posted on 05/09/2014 9:33:42 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CHRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming.)
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To: NELSON111
The Pope...and a whole LOT of people...need to ALSO understand that

1) government doesn't create equality or prosperity, it creates MISERY AND POVERTY and

2) FREEDOM and the FREE MARKET ECONOMY are the only things on earth that creates HAPPINESS, PEACE, and WEALTH.

156 posted on 05/09/2014 9:40:25 AM PDT by PapaNew
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To: mikrofon

I am over 74 years old.

Thru my hard work and an inheritance, I have owned 4 houses, with such ownership overlapping.

I have paid out over 80 years of property taxes accordingly. About 50% of those property taxes were used to pay for schools.

I never had any kids.

I sure would like that 50% rebated to me now.


157 posted on 05/09/2014 9:41:26 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

I meant American foreign aid is a subsidy for Swiss banks. Since a lot of it ends up there. In secret accounts.


158 posted on 05/09/2014 9:41:55 AM PDT by DManA
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To: ridesthemiles

I meant American foreign aid is a subsidy for Swiss banks. Since a lot of it ends up there. In secret accounts.


159 posted on 05/09/2014 9:41:56 AM PDT by DManA
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To: SeekAndFind

From the article:”with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.”


ummm....forced confiscation and redistributing ones wealth isn’t a very “generous” gesture. It is called theft.


160 posted on 05/09/2014 9:44:10 AM PDT by cornfedcowboy
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