Pope Denounces'Imbalance' of Wealth

El Paso Times ^ | Sep 26, 9:35 AM EDT | AP

[FITZ]

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) -- Pope John Paul II denounced the "imbalance" between the world's rich and poor Sunday and applauded efforts to eliminate hunger, like the recent U.N. initiative to increase funds for development.

The 84-year-old pontiff had to stop for breath every few words as he spoke to a few hundred pilgrims and tourists in his last Sunday appearance this season at his summer palace in the hill town of Castel Gandolfo. John Paul has Parkinson's disease, making it difficult for him to walk and to pronounce his words.

The pontiff said Sunday's Gospel passage about Lazarus, an impoverished beggar who ate the scraps from a rich man's table, was "ever more appropriate in reference to the problem of the imbalance between the riches and poverty of the world today."

On Monday, the presidents of Brazil and France encouraged 110 countries to back a new declaration to fight hunger and poverty and to increase funds for development. More than 50 heads of state or government joined in a debate at the United Nations on the impact of globalization and on ways to finance the war on poverty.

John Paul called the U.N. meeting important and said it was aimed at "a more united and efficient action against hunger and poverty." He noted the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who is the city-state's secretary of state, participated in the debate and pledged the Holy See's support for the initiative.

The United States didn't join in the pledge to fight hunger and poverty. The Bush administration objected to proposals for international taxes as undemocratic and impossible to implement.

John Paul reiterated his Church's backing.

"The Catholic Church assures all its commitment to eradicating the scourge of hunger and the other consequences of poverty from the world," the pope said.

He prayed that God would "sustain the efforts of the international community aimed at justice and solid development. This, in fact, is the path which can guarantee to the world a future of peace."

John Paul also offered prayers on prayers for families and populations "most tried by the unfair distribution of wealth that God destines for all his children."

While the pope struggled with his brief speech Sunday, he announced he was forging ahead with his grueling schedule. After again taking up residence at the Vatican on Wednesday, he will lead a long beatification ceremony on Oct. 3 in St. Peter's Square.

[Pyro7480]

Did he say that someone should force the rich countries to give? He's just repeating the message of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

[Grey Ghost II]

Lots. I taught a class of catechumens about the Sacrament of Reconciliation this morning. Sorry you missed it.

Ok, if you can't back up your statement. I'll move on.

[vaudine]

The Pope can start the ball rolling by giving up his lavish way of living, selling much of the churches treasures and giving a few billion--in other words, put his money where his mouth is.

vaudine

[eeriegeno]

Pope John Paul II denounced the "imbalance" between the world's rich and poor Sunday and applauded efforts to eliminate hunger, like the recent U.N. initiative to increase funds for development.

Your Holiness, I would suggest that the Catholic Church set an example by auctioning off, to the highest bidder, all of the relics, gold, paintings, and anything else of value at Saint Paul's Basillica in south Rome with proceeds to be donated to the starving people of this world! If that proves to eliminate half of the hunger in this world, possibly you could consider Saint Peter's Basillica at the Vatican??????

[landerwy]

It is hard to tell from the article exactly what he said. However, with the fact that his representative was there negotiating with government leaders indicates that there is strong possibility of requesting that governments redistribute wealth. There is one thing of voluntarily helping others and another of governments forcing one to help through increased taxes.

Forced benevolence never was charity, which is what I believe the parable you quoted refers to; charity.

[Sarastro]

Nevertheless, it's hard to hide the fact that America isn't the land of opportunity that it once was.

It would be interesting to know the facts.

Anecdotally, I can still think of lots of people who started poor and wound up well off. I also seem to recall that macroeconomic data show that people regularly move from the lowest income quintile to the highest in this country. Conversely, there's a saying, "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations," referring to the frequency with which poor people become rich and their descendants squander the wealth and become poor again.

Clearly, it's more difficult to get ahead without an education these days, but a plucky youth can generally figure out how to get an education.

[Torie]

Not one serious post on this thread that I noticed about the merits of the Pope's point of view. Just rants about soem goodies in the Vatican that should be liquidated, and stuff about child abuse, and name calling. Pathetic. Freepers should do better than is exemplified here.

As to the merits, it appears that just effecting transfer payments to poorer lands without careful controls and thought, just makes things worse, or props up evil/dysfunctional regimes. Yes worse - - like the subsizied food to Africa wiping out local farmers. Moreover, international institutions tend to be so corrupt and dysfunctional, including sad to say all too often, the World Bank, that the US should just do its thing on its own. Some ideas have proven to work, like micro loans for budding entrepreneurs as occurred in Bangledesh.

And of course the biggest boon of all would be unfettered free trade for these nations, but then so many with the Pope's mindset (I don't know about the Pope himself on this one), just carp about slave labor, or environmental concerns, as if no labor and handouts would really help to lift up those most in need of lifting up.

The road to effective hell on this mortal coil is often paved with good intentions. Good intentions are simply not enough, and the Pope doesn't have any grounding in economics or the empirical body of evidence on this matter. He's simply not qualified.

There. Now was that so hard?

[Desdemona]

While you are looking up that scripture, how about posting those that instruct us on the selling of absolution.

Absolution is given freely, not sold.

[HighlyOpinionated]

1- Kristin was baptized a Catholic. Unless she dies in mortal sin, she'll get a Catholic funeral. (The Baptists say 'once saved always saved' so will we now question that?)

2- Infallibility: "We mean in other words that the Church is infallible in her objective definitive teaching regarding faith and morals, not that believers are infallible in their subjective interpretation of her teaching."

3- Infallibility of the Pope: "The teaching of the Vatican Council is to be found in Session III, cap. 4, where it is declared that "the doctrine of faith, which God has revealed, has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent, but has been committed as a Divine deposit to the spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted by her"; and in Session IV, cap. 4, where it is defined that the Roman pontiff when he teaches ex cathedra "enjoys, by reason of the Divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith and morals"."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII
Copyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. Knight
Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

4- No, it is a common misconception among protestants that sola scriptura is scriptural. It's not. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:15. "Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statment of by a letter of ours." New American Bible (Catholic Edition) Oxford University Press c1990 No where in the Scriptures does it say to ignore what was taught orally (tradition). The Scriptures clearly say "both" Tradition and Scripture are important.

5- The Pope's mortality? Yes, he is a man, he is a sinner, he goes to his confessor daily. BUT as it states above, when he is speaking "Ex Cathedra" he's speaking what God wants the Church to hear and it only occurs in matters of Faith and Morals.

6- Religion is not static. Faith is not static. The Church is not static. Religion, Faith and The Church are living and dynamic. The Roman Catholic Church has a living Magisterium which watches over this dynamic Faith and the Scriptures and Traditional Writings of the Patriarchs to maintain this dynamic life and to keep The Church from error or contradiction in Faith and Morals. Or in other words, how to keep the Bride of Christ (The Church) close to Christ (The Church's Savior).

7- I would like to suggest for you to borrow a book of the writings of the Early Church Patriarchs and read it. The farther back you go -- between AD 33 and AD 400, the more appreciation for Tradition you'll acquire.

[SendShaqtoIraq]

"These new sayings are not typical for the JP we've come to know and love.
Something's wrong.
I wonder who is waiting in the wings to take over once he's gone."

The Anti-Christ

[Just mythoughts]

"Source? The Pope told Saddam to comply with UN sanctions and resolutions or suffer the consequences."


Was this before or after the war?

I think the Pope came out against the war.

[HighlyOpinionated]

The Roman Catholic Church is not just a Pope and few million believers. It's Catholic Orphanages, Catholic Schools, Catholic Hospitals, Catholic Monasteries, Catholic Convents, Catholic Sisters, Catholic Brothers, Catholic Monks, Catholic Priests, Diocese, ArchBishops, Bishops, Canonical Lawyers, and on and on.

The Sisters and Brothers and Monks have no income. They are provided with a place to live, clothing, medical care, in exchange for things like: caring for lepers, caring for orphans, caring for HIV patients, caring for TB patients, being nurses in hospitals, taking care of the lowliest of the low. They also bake the Communion Bread, make the Communion Wine, give up having grandchildren. They spend hours praying and saying the Rosary and the Office of the Hours. They also go into Countries where they know they are in physical danger, and they do it because they feel privileged to serve God in this way. On 'foreign' soil, Sisters get raped, robbed, shot in the head. Brothers and Priests are strung up and shot.

For what? For the Faith. For The Church. Because they love Christ Jesus and they love the people God created. Because they want to serve Him by serving others. They want to make other people's lives better.

This in stark contrast to the followers of Islam.

[antaresequity]

John Paul II is a good and great man, but he knows economics like Milton Friedman knows Catholic theology

Apparently this 'good and great man' is imbecilic if he thought his words would not be twisted around...this borders on moronic...

the leftist socialist cabal of the planet will leap on this, despite the gross hypocrisy of the underlying notion...that the richest religion on the planet, with a leadership festooned in wealth should preach about an imbalance in wealth distribution...appalling and appropriate at the same time given the growing irrelevance of the diocese

Message to the pope...put your money where your mouth is or shut the hell up...

[Willie Green]

And of course the biggest boon of all would be unfettered free trade for these nations,

IOW, you want to swoop-in and acquire ownership control of their economic resources before they have a chance to develop their own competitive private sector from the ground up.

[ppaul]

This in stark contrast to the followers of Islam.

And, in stark contrast to the RC hierarchy, I am sorry to say, who live like kings, drinking the finest wines, vacationing in palatial splendor, while lowly priests and nuns take vows of poverty. What a system!

[lainde]

bttt

[HighlyOpinionated]

And, in stark contrast to the RC hierarchy.

---

But think about it. They don't get to be "hierarchy" without denying themselves all the "luxuries" as young men. They've been priests who could claim nothing. They leave everything behind when they move, except maybe a Chalice their Mom gave them when they were ordained, or a set of vestments purchased for them at their first pastorate. And they usually don't get asked to move to a new Church, they're told where to go.

You think they're in luxury because all you see is the outside trappings. Many of the men you speak of are some of the most humble men on the face of the planet. Today they're in Rome attending the University, they graduate and they're placed in an inner city Church where their very life is at risk.

What do you think the the hierarchy does all day? They go to confession/reconcilliation daily, they attend Mass daily, they pray for hours daily, they spend hours reading daily, they have conferences and talk about what they've read, they get on the Internet to see what's being said about Catholics, they write books if they are told to do so or they may request permission to write.

These are not your (L)users. These are men who made a commitment for a lifetime. They, in effect, married The Church with none of the "benefits" of marriage.

(And let's NOT go into the sexual scandals. I am aware of them. They are not the norm. They point to the humanity of men who think they're called to the priesthood. Or to the humanity of elderly Sisters who should be retired and not teaching first graders. We live in a world of fallen men and women, that's a given. It is a shame that some people think that "the priesthood" or "religious" life will change their carnal desires. Doesn't work that way.)

(And while we're NOT talking about priests and their scandals, let's not talk about Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker or John Wesley Fletcher or the Pastor of First Baptist in a town I lived in who was making obscene phone calls to women in town. Everyone who reads this knows of another "scandal" from another religious leader.)

(And while we're at it, let's not talk about past Presidents who had known sexual scandals and those whose sexual scandals were not known until after they died.)

(And while we're at it, let's not talk about the 'religious leaders' of Islamic Fundamentalist Radicals who denounce the USofA but take advantage of our openness. They talk a good talk, they incite, but they sit back in their comfort and let other people do their dirty work. They pay a paltry sum to a family so that they can strap a bomb on their child and send that child into the midst of a crowd and then remotely detonate the child who immediately gets to their heaven. They live like feudal lords while their followers beg for food. Saddam was one such person. There are countless others.)

[Desdemona]

Just a couple quick points:

A priest's Chalice and Paten are given to him when he is ordained and they are passed down, many times, within the church. There isn't the money out there to buy each his own, unless his family is well off. Some priests do scrimp and save enough to buy their own vestments, but most are goods owned by the parish.

Just a minor point: Penance is the sacramental name of confession. Just a little thing, but it says more about the sacrament than reconciliation ever could.

[Salvation]

I object to your comments.

[Salvation]

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