Posted on 07/19/2015 3:11:41 PM PDT by smokingfrog
On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel.
Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evos head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule.
On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that Sandinista Marxist regime as culture minister.
And, while in Managua, he warned Catholics they were being threatened by unacceptable ideological commitments.
Today we have a pope for whom free-market capitalism is the unacceptable ideological commitment.
As The New York Times reports, Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of capitalism. He compares them to the dung of the devil. He does not simply argue that greed for money is a bad thing. He calls it a subtle dictatorship that condemns and enslaves.
In South America, Pope Francis made a historic apology for the crimes of the Roman Catholic Church during the period of Spanish colonialism even as he called for a global movement against a new colonialism rooted in an inequitable economic order.
The Argentine pope seemed to be asking for a social revolution.
Now the church has a long tradition of criticizing capitalism, dating back to the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891.
In American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America, author Russ Shaw deals with the causes and consequences of what some Catholics contend was a fatal embrace of a heretical Americanism in the 19th century.
(Excerpt) Read more at tbo.com ...
Good points. Also, Capitalism, socialism, etc., are tools, or methods, to distribute goods, services, resources and so on. Just like any other tool, it can be used for evil or good. I can use a wrench to fix a car or beat someone to death. Socialism in itself works only in small groups where everyone can generally trust each other like in a family group or a small commune. Even then it isn’t perfect. On a national level, less so although it can work “better” where the people are more homogenous and the population is generally low, think places like Norway perhaps. Even so, people do have free will and many times socialists cross that line.
In other words he is a communist.
that's NOT free-market "capitalism" - that's statism/fascism/crony-capitalism - whatever you want to call it. Its an iron rule - the larger the state is, the larger the amount of gaming the system, insider dealing, lobbying and outright corruption. In the USA, or financial system in particular has gone to the dark side. Banks are now political entities, bailed out by the Federal Reserve and US Government with your taxes, your savings and zero interest rates penalizing the middle class and savers.
Then again, no I'm not.
Jesus Christ: You cant impeach Him and He aint gonna resign.
bump
Thank you for making that important distinct point.
Frankie can read the checks that Soros signs.
Yes, why hasn't the Pope sold off the RCC's treasures and fortune and given it to the poor?
Sadly, at this moment in time, there is no worse influence in the world than this marxist Pope. The damage he is doing, especially in Central and South America, spewing this socialist garbage is absolutely enormous. Once upon a time JP2 tried to reign in these marxist liberation theologist Jesuits, unfortunately he missed this one.
“Whatever you want to call it”, *exactly*.
The term popped in my head. I followed with, “As they call them”
Good points. Thanks.
We are in the end of days indeed.
What are the alternatives to Capitalism?
There are plenty of alternatives, but none have been very successful, have they?
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