[NYer]

Pope Benedict XVI waves from his Popemobile as he enters the city of Madrid Thursday Aug. 18, 201. Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Madrid between Aug. 18- 21.

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Live coverage continues today at 1pm on EWTN

Welcome Ceremony With Youth At Cibeles

In Plaza de la Independencia (near Cibeles), he will pass through the Puerta de Alcalá with youth from all the continents. After this event, he will travel in Popemobile to Plaza de Cibeles.
1 PM ET (Live) & 10:30 PM ET (Encore)

Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/wyd2011/coverage.asp#ixzz1VNvu3YLp

[BelegStrongbow]

So, this Pope has either not read or fundamentally disagrees with Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’. Especially it is odd to think that the current economic travails have anything to do with profits. I would have attributed them to monomaniacal devotion to regulation and deification of the earth in place of God. Wouldn’t that be a far worse heresy than wanting to earn a nickel on the dollar?

[NYer]

Hours before the pontiff's arrival, riot police and protesters opposed to his stay clashed in downtown Madrid. Police said eight demonstrators were arrested and 11 people were injured in the disturbances Wednesday night in the city's Puerta del Sol plaza.

A young woman wearing the World Youth Day yellow shirt, center, argues with demonstrators protesting the visit of Pope Benedict XVI at Madrid's central Sol square Wednesday Aug. 17, 2011. The Pope is due to arrive Thursday for a four-day visit to celebrate World Youth Day, and thousands of protesters railing against his visit marched through Madrid to the Sol plaza where they have held months of demonstrations against the government's anti-austerity policies.

Pilgrims pray as protesters try to set a World Youth Day flag on fire during a demonstration against what they claim is the expensive cost of the papal visit in central Madrid coinciding with the second day of the World Youth Day meeting August 17, 2011. Pope Benedict arrives in Spain on Thursday for a four-day visit to a traditionally Catholic country that has become highly secular. The protesters did not burn the flag in the end because other fellow protesters stopped them from doing so.

[Redmen4ever]

Now the Pope lectures us on economics. Perhaps next he will lecture us on how many moons revolve around Jupiter.

Spain, with 21 percent unemployment, doesn’t have enough socialism? My goodness, does he want 40 percent unemployment?

Even the expression “profits at all cost” makes no sense. Profits only comes from cost be low relative to benefit, not from cost being high.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Profit" means that the stuff you want to redistribute gets produced, Benny.

Without "profit," there are no products produced for your redistribution engine to redistribute.

It's not rocket surgery.

[LeGrande]

The problem is government overspending (socialism).

The fact that the Pope claims that production (profit) is the problem speaks volumes.

I sense an agenda on the Popes part, and a fundamental lack of morality. It is immoral to steal from people and that is what he is supporting.

[Pessimist]

“Man must be at the centre of the economy and the economy must not be measured only by the maximization of profit but according to the common good,”

AKA Socialsim.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Religion is not generally compatible with freedom.

[Rum Tum Tugger]

Proving once again that Popes are lousy economists.

[Little Ray]

Pope needs to shut up and concentrate on saving souls.
Free enterprise, i.e. “capitalism” is the only ethical economic system. It is the free and un-coerced exchange of goods and services.
What sort of coercion does he propose to inflict on the system?

[RoadTest]

“Pope denounces profit-at-all mentality behind economic crisis hitting Europe”

I don’t think he’s pegged the cause of Europe’s woes.

[DManA]

Actually, people who ONLY care about profit do not generally do very well over the long term in free market economies.

It’s people who have a passion for their product, a passion to do a job well, a passion to make their customers happy that become the biggest successes. Profit follows service.

[markomalley]

The trouble when depending upon left-wing sources to report the words of the Holy Father. They subtly put their own spin on it.

What was reported in this article:

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality he says is behind Europe's current economic crisis. The pontiff insisted that morals and ethics must play a greater role in formulating economic policy in the future.

"Man must be at the centre of the economy and the economy must not be measured only by the maximization of profit but according to the common good," the pontiff told reporters aboard his plane as he travelled to Madrid for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day.

What the Holy Father actually said:

A. – And thus, it is confirmed in the current economic crisis that which had already appeared in previous great crises, that the ethical dimension is not something external to economic problems, but an inner and fundamental dimension. The economy does not only work with a self-regulated market, but needs an ethical way of reasoning in order to work for man. It appears again that what Pope John Paul II had already said in his first social encyclical: man must be the center of the economy and the economy is not to be measured solely according to achieving maximum profits. Its true measure is according to how it serves the good of everyone, including taking responsibility for others, and it works really well only if it works in a humane manner with respect for others. This includes different dimensions. The first is that individuals take responsibility for their nation and not just for themselves. The second is that nations must take responsibility for the world - beyond their own national interests, even a continent like Europe must not think only of its own good but assume responsibility for all of humanity and should always think about its economic problems in the light of this responsibility for other parts of the world: for those who are suffering, thirsty and hungry, and have no future. And then - the third dimension of this responsibility – is the responsibility for the future. We know that we must protect our planet, but we must protect - all in all - the functioning of the service of economic work for everyone by reckoning that tomorrow is also today. If the youth of today have no prospects in life, our today has made a mistake and is 'evil'. Therefore, the Church with her social doctrine, with its doctrine of responsibility to God, opens man up to the possibility of renouncing profit and seeing things in the religious and humanistic dimension, that is to live for one another. Thus open even the paths. The large number of volunteers who work in different parts of the world, not for themselves but for others, and thereby find meaning in life, show that this is possible and that educating young people to aspire to these great purposes, such as the Church is trying to do, is essential for our future.

Naturally, FReepers, who normally question everything reported in the media, take it at face value. Unsurprising.

[NYer]

Ping!