Posted on 07/10/2015 7:06:00 AM PDT by HomerBohn
Pope Francis on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the "new colonialism" of austerity, describing unfettered capitalism as “the dung of the devil” and apologising for the Catholic church's role in the conquest of indigenous populations in the Americas.
He delivered a powerful mea culpa on the part of the church in the highlight of his South American pilgrimage, "humbly" begging forgiveness during an encounter in Bolivia with indigenous groups and other activists and in the presence of Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president, Evo Morales.
The first Latin American pope noted that church leaders in the past had acknowledged that "grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God." St. John Paul II, for his part, apologized to the continent's indigenous for the "pain and suffering" caused during the 500 years of the church's presence in the Americas during a 1992 visit to the Dominican Republic.
But the Pope went further and said he was doing so with "regret."
"I would also say, and here I wish to be quite clear, as was St. John Paul II: I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America," he said to applause from the crowd.
Then deviating from his prepared script, he added: "I also want for us to remember the thousands and thousands of priests who strongly opposed the logic of the sword with the power of the cross. There was sin, and it was plentiful. But we never apologized, so I now ask for forgiveness. But where there was sin, and there was plenty of sin, there was also an abundant grace increased by the men who defended indigenous peoples."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
You are not alone, millions of people in the Middle East take the same attitude.
On second thought, perhaps we should listen to him. CUT OFF all of that foreign aid the ‘dung of the Devil’ generates and sends down to the festering sub-human hell holes he defends. Capitalist money is being wasted on our enemies and criminals-not to mention charities and donations in church. Think he will tell his socialist admirers to reject Capitalist money?
Fortunately I have a Church to go to.
Since 1989 I consider myself to be a sedevacantist who believes that everything that transpired subsequent to Vatican II had one goal: to establish a NEW religion. Since no pope subsequent to Pius XII did anything to reverse this evil caused by the secular humanists, then they are sycophants.
If one would take the time to review Vatican II to see who was involved in tossing rubrics, tenets and liturgy out the window they’d find that six leftist protestants were involved.
The term ‘catholic’ means universal and before Vatican II this was true. One could venture into a Catholic church in, say, Spain and that person would know exactly what was going in in the liturgy.
Today, a Novus Ordo visit in Buffalo, New York, and a ‘service’ in Sacramento, California would give one two different views of what’s happening. Forget going into a Spanish church.
The irony is, the vast trillions of charitable money spread around the world in the last century flowed out of the Protestant Anglosphere, US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc.
JP2 must be rolling in his grave. I cannot fathom why Pope Benedict abdicated to give us this.
It’s the pope’s Roman Holy day of December 25 that capitalism measures to see if they are in the red or black for the year..
Wonder what the unfettered capitalists would do without Rome and her santa and bunny days.
Fall? Keep talking Francis!!!
And all those trillions solved what? If money solved poverty surely SOME hell hole would be utopia by now. How is it that evil capitalism built a modern country here yet hasn’t erased ghettos here and in the third world? Answer-mentality. Ignorance and true evil that takes good and wastes it. Capitalism provides, socialism destroys- it is the sucking sewer into which anything offered is turned to excrement. And socialists denounce capitalism while demanding more money.
Maybe this Pope is continuing that Pope’s work.
John Paul II called Evangelical Christians “ravenous wolves”.
Not that I’m a big fan of JPII, but he did crack down on liberation theology, at least before he was shot.
For bringing Christianity to the natives and ending the mass human sacrifices of the Aztecs and Mayans and the oppression of imperial conquests by them and the Incas? Or maybe for the rapine, cruelty, and exploitation of Catholic Spaniards toward the natives as conquistadores and as their ruling class?
Considering that at the time, in Europe and everywhere else, ordinary people were exploited by the ruling classes of their day, perhaps the Holy Father was apologizing that the Catholic Church and Spaniards then were not yet of modern sensibilities, culturally sensitive toward natives and modest about the claims of the faith -- except when it comes to secular issues like global warming and free market economics.
In my lifetime, I have been disappointed at times in the pope, but this is the first one I have seen who seems like a vain fool at his core, flamboyant in his modesty and immodest in his claims. Most dangerously, the Pope risks unravelling the Catholic Church's sense of legitimacy through his denunciations of the past and of the way that large swaths of the Christian faithful live.
I wonder if, for the sake of consistency, Pope Francis will renounce the Vatican's investments, shutter its businesses, and decline contributions from the faithful in capitalist countries? Probably not, because without the majesty of the Vatican, Francis would be as he was, a little known cardinal of odd views.
Don’t they interview these guys before they hire them? I know another place that made the same error...
capitalism is the only economic system that is compatible with God-given natural rights, God-created human nature, and the Biblical concept of justice. What a stupid, foolish, pathetic imbecile the Pope is
Besides, where is there any unfettered capitalism taking place? Sure as heck not here.
I’m now going to be Lutheran! Dropping my Catholic faith after nearly 70 years. This pope is a dufus. Where’s the co-pope that resigned?
now THATS an analogy you don’t hear everyday...:)
I remember that, it wasn’t very convincing, especially at the same time when he was attacking the anti-socialist Christians.
“This joker could single-handedly sink the Vatican.”
The word “could” should be “is.” The Catholic Church will rue the day they gave this Commie the papacy.
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