Posted on 11/30/2013 3:59:08 PM PST by NYer
Pope Francis recently issued the apostolic exhortation "The Joy of the Gospel." Click here to read it.
Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh isn't pleased with the document, calling it "pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope." (Source)
I sought comment on the matter from Father John Trigilio Jr., Ph.D., Th.D., president of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. Below is Father's analysis (slightly edited).
I often listen to Rush Limbaugh and find him to be an intelligent man and an erudite conservative journalist. He uses common sense and logic to expose the fallacious arguments of liberal progressives. Unfortunately, he himself has fallen into a trap by which he erroneously extrapolates a false premise from the recent papal document from Pope Francis.
Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) is an apostolic exhortation issued on November 24, 2013. While not an ex cathedra infallible document, it nevertheless contains ordinary papal magisterial teaching that demands submission of mind and will by faithful Catholics.
Rush is uncharacteristically inaccurate in his quotations. Pope Francis did not criticize unfettered capitalism; he used the phrase unfettered consumerism. The late and great Father Richard John Neuhaus defined consumerism as:
Capitalism is an economic and political ideology, whereas consumerism is a personal and individual ideology. The former is focused on a free market; the latter is obsessed with the acquisition of goods in and of themselves. Blessed John Paul II made the distinction that communism and consumerism are far extremes, and both threaten human freedom. One denies the right to access of necessary goods; the other deifies materialism and promotes avarice, greed and envy. A free market system, on the other hand, treats human beings equally, not giving undo advantage to card-carrying members of the Communist Party while penalizing those who express some political dissent.
What Pope Francis, Pope Benedict, Pope John Paul, Pope Leo and others have consistently been saying and teaching, however, is that the individual person is a moral agent. He must answer to God for what he did or did not do to help his neighbor in need. The Gospel of Matthew ends by separating the sheep from goats based on what each individual did or did not do to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, and so on. It is not a judgment of government policies or agencies; it is a personal judgment on each one of us.
That said, besides personal acts of Christian charity, it is logical and reasonable, prudent and necessary to pool resources and, even for the state, to help in cases where the most needy and most urgent cases are helped. Yet no pope ever promoted, nor called for, a welfare state that perpetually cares for the poor. The ultimate goal is to enable the poor to rise above poverty and reach a level of dignity commensurate with their human dignity.
Access to necessary goods is a natural right. That does not mean, however, that the natural moral law requires the poor to become enslaved to the state by permanently keeping them dependent. Rush calls Pope Francis a Socialist at best and a Communist at worst. Does this sound like a commie comment?
Contrary to what many modern public school textbooks currently tell our children, capitalism was actually created during the high Middle Ages and, as Michael Novak wrote in 2003, Catholicism is what created it. While feudalism sustained Christendom from the fall of the Roman Empire (476 A.D.) through the so-called Dark Ages, during the 12th to 14th centuries, the middle class arose thanks to capitalism, which eventually replaced feudalism. Medieval guilds and religious orders, such as the Cistercians, became contemporary entrepreneurs of their time.
Thomas Woods' How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization has an entire chapter titled "The Church and Economics" in which he, too, proposes that money was not an artificial product of government (crown or parliament), but a result of a voluntary process between merchants. Barter became more and more impractical when dealing with perishable items and dealing with transporting goods over long distances. Religious orders like the Cistercians devised accounting systems by which goods could be bought and sold between fellow monks, and this was duplicated by lay merchants who participated in the process.
While the secular states were governed by aristocracies and monarchies, and while the Church herself is hierarchical, it is still Catholic doctrine that all men and women are created in the image of God and by baptism are considered children of God. That spiritual equality was translated into an economic equality, which transcended the political. The emerging middle class came from the peasant class. They did so because their faith taught them they were equal in the eyes of God and therefore had equal opportunities to improve their material situation. Those who could not – the destitute poor, the lame, widowed and orphaned – relied on the Christian charity of the nobility and the emerging middle class.
It was the Church who literally created the colleges and universities, hospitals and orphanages, and who ran the poor houses and soup kitchens. The secular state (government) did not create these institutions; religious orders and dioceses did. Christian charity motivated those who had more to help those who had less.
When you read Evangelii Gaudium in its entirety, it continues the papal magisterium found in Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, Mater et Magistra, Gaudium et Spes, Centesimus Annus, and, of course, the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The very reason a nation has banking and finance laws is that human beings are not perfect. Original sin affects everyone, and some people, be they CEOs, CFOs, bankers or brokers, sometimes make bad choices that produce bad effects that cause great harm to many innocent people. I know of no conservative or liberal, Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian who would advocate the repeal of laws barring insider trading.
We need laws to maintain some parameters on banks and stock brokers to protect people from abuse and exploitation. Republicans and Democrats dispute the length, breadth and depth of such legal regulations, but even a free market has some borders that cannot be ignored. Limited government is still very different from no government. Some, even if minimal, legislation is needed since not everyone acts prudently or fairly or for pristine motives.
That said, it was totally unfair and inaccurate of Rush to attack Pope Francis for addressing a letter as head of the Roman Catholic Church to his more than one billion members. The pontiff was merely reiterating consistent Church teaching that supports a free market, but also reminds the moral obligation to act responsibly, honestly and prudently. No one can command generosity but it is something which should be encouraged and promoted. Welfare dependency helps neither the individual nor the nation. Some welfare is necessary for those who cannot be helped by private or non-profit charitable organizations. However, the goal is always to help move those into economic independence and become self-sufficient.
Laborem Exercens teaches us the sanctity of human work. The Catechism tells us that the Catholic Church always believes justice and solidarity are essential and necessary to human freedom. Justice is distributive, commutative and social. Unfettered consumerism is not synonymous with capitalism. A free market system respects human freedom and autonomy. Consumerism is an abuse and an extreme. Communism wrongly treated human labor as a means of production for the state. Consumerism wrongly treats the product of human labor and of the free market as the final source of happiness and fulfillment.
Material things, while helpful, do not produce enduring and true happiness. They make life easier, more comfortable and more convenient. Technology helps cure sickness and disease and helps makes life less a burden. All Pope Francis is warning is that the possession and acquisition of goods is not salvific, nor does it bring lasting joy. Pleasure is temporary, whereas joy can be eternal.
The pontiff is not forcing any nation or government to abandon capitalism; he's not advocating socialism let alone communism. He is, however, reminding Catholics all over the globe that we must buy and sell prudently while using our consciences. In that light, I see no reason for Rush to take offense or issue with Pope Francis.
I highly urge Rush to read Father Robert Sirico's Defending the Free Market and John Horvat's Return to Order. Mr. Horvat does a splendid job explaining the notion of frenetic intemperance, which is a cousin of unfettered consumerism. Father Sirico precisely shows that freedom requires a free market and that greed is no friend of capitalism. Rather, greed flourishes under socialism.
John Paul II ‘destroyed’ communism because it denied the sacredness of human life.
So can a consumer driven culture like ours.
I think this shows that a lot of conservatives (many of whom are my own friends) use the Catholic Church just like the libs do. They’re okay with the Pope when he’s condemning abortion and gay ‘marriage’ but when he preaches that those with wealth have a responsibility toward the poor the guns come out and accusations of socialism and Marxism are thrown about.
As far as I can tell there is no difference in philosophy in this exhortation by Francis than there was in the encyclical, Charity in Truth by Benedict.
Government action is not synonymous with tyranny. Government action that is cruel and oppressive is tyranny. Your logic causes some problems. I assume you are an anarchist or libertarian. If so, I’d probably agree with 98% of your opinions.
I think our bishops should be more focused on local problems than national or international politics. Maybe when they can convince the majority of their own parishioners to actually believe Catholic doctrine their voices on other matters can be taken more seriously.
Amen.
Yes, Jesus said we are to be poor in spirit. He and the Bible say many things all of which have to be considered simultaneously. Didn’t the very same Jesus who gave the sermon on the mount also say this:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
In my opinion, the power of the sermon on the mount is its turning of the world upside down, taking something normally considered negatively (”poor in spirit”) and turning it upside down so as to reveal a wonderful truth. So, there’s a poetry to the verse, so that the apparent literal contradiction of this part of the sermon on the mount with Matthew 6:21 is of no consequence.
It makes sense.
and that is not what he said
If so, I’d probably agree with 98% of your opinions.
In the case of the U.S the constitution forbids them the power to do certain things but if they can force their will upon the people in spite of the law it is tyranny.
I don,t really know if i am a libertarian or an anarchist, but again there are a lot of different views on what an anarchist is.
In fact, just poor. "In spirit" is the adjective of "blessed" in Matthew, it is not their in Luke's Gospel. Of course, it is not a way to sort out the saved and the condemned (see Matthew 25 second half for that), but combined with the "eye of the needle" pericope, it is quite clear that wealth is an impediment to salvation, and poverty assists it.
On your previous post, I agree. I love Rush, he did more than any living individual to popularize conservative ideas, but subtlety of thought is not his strength. He should stick to GOP propaganda and leave matters of faith to people who practice it.
Good points. I would say that being poor removes an obstacle to the practice of virtue. Having wealth on the other hand provides a different opportunity for the practice of virtue.
Yes, I’m a conservative, generally I’m for the free market, I listen to Rush and vote Republican, usually, and I’d like for he and Palin and the rest to stick to defending religous liberty rather than telling us Catholics how to interpret our Holy Father.
I agree. I think the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is largely forgotten in ‘social justice’ conversations such as this. In my opinion, the Church’s teachings lend themselves much closer to conservatism than liberalism. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like that is what the Church is saying but most of the time bishops who write documents for the Church, including this Pope come from completely different circumstances than you and I do here in the US. I’m sure it’s difficult to address problems in one document to people of all walks of life without sounding simultaneously too left or too right.
Have you been paying attention to everything else he’s said? Or for that matter the popes who came before him? Every time a pope discusses economics he’s preached virtue and selflessness.
yes and yes… this pope is clearly anti free market and anti capitalist…the jesuits I am sure are very proud
Problem is, with the intellectual equipment Rush and Palin have got, we won’t get anything we haven’t gotten already. Those who like it, can go ahead and defend them. That’s you, Nifster.
Does your free market include workman’s comp? Assurances against insider trading? Any safeguards against fraud or exploitation?
I used to be for an entirely government-free free market but fallen beings that we are, greed and theft still happen. You’re setting up a false dichotomy. It doesn’t follow that the Pope is a Marxist or anti-capitalist because he thinks the government has a responsibility to the common good for its citizens.
Also, where in the exhortation does the Pope say that he is anti-capitalist?
Also, everything that comes from Rome does not stand alone in a vacuum. It has to be read in light of Catholic tradition, which includes the principle of subsidiarity, which is nearly the anti-thesis of Big Government.
Was Benedict XVI an anti-capitalist?
Agreed. But I guess they have to fill the airwaves with something.
BWAHAHHAHAHHA now that’s really funny
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