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Is Benedict in Favor of World Government?
First Things ^ | August 20, 2009 | Douglas A. Sylva

Posted on 08/20/2009 12:30:40 PM PDT by IbJensen

As observers continue to decipher the meaning of Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, all appear to agree that the passage of note, the passage that may prove historic in its implications, is the one that is already becoming known as the “world political authority” paragraph:

In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. One also senses the urgent need to find innovative ways of implementing the principle of the responsibility to protect and of giving poorer nations an effective voice in shared decision-making. This seems necessary in order to arrive at a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity. To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority. . . .

Could Benedict be in favor of world government, as many now believe? Taken in the context of papal writings since the dawn of the UN, as well as Benedict’s own opinions, recorded both before and after his election as pope, the passage gains another meaning. It is in reality a profound challenge to the UN, and the other international organizations, to make themselves worthy of authority, of the authority that they already possess, and worthy of the expansion of authority that appears to be necessary in light of the accelerated pace of globalization.

It is true that Benedict believes that a transnational organization must be empowered to address transnational problems. But so has every pope since John XXIII, who wrote in 1963 that “Today the universal common good presents us with problems which are worldwide in their dimensions; problems, therefore, which cannot be solved except by a public authority with power, organization, and means coextensive with these problems, and with a worldwide sphere of activity. Consequently the moral order itself demands the establishment of some such form of public authority.”

But such an authority has been established, and we have lived with it since 1948, and in many ways it has disappointed. So Benedict turns John XXIII’s formulation on its head: Morality no longer simply demands a global social order; now Benedict underscores that this existing social order must operate in accord with morality. He ends his own passage on world authority by stating that “The integral development of peoples and international cooperation require the establishment of a greater international ordering, marked by subsidiarity, for the management of globalization. They also require the construction of a social order that at last conforms to the moral order. . . .” Note the phrase “at last.”

What went wrong? According to Benedict, a world authority worthy of this authority would need “to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth.” The obvious implication is that the current UN has not made this commitment.

To understand how the UN has failed, we must delve into the rest of the encyclical. According to Benedict, the goal of all international institutions must be “authentic integral human development.” This human development must be inspired by truth, in this case, the truth about humanity. Pursuit of this truth reveals that each human being possesses absolute worth; therefore, authentic human development is predicated on a radical defense of life.

This link is made repeatedly in Caritas in Veritate. “Openness to life is at the center of true development. . . . The acceptance of life strengthens moral fiber and makes people capable of mutual help. . . . They can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and individual.”

To some, it must seem startling how often Benedict comes back to life in an encyclical ostensibly dedicated to economics and globalization. But this must be understood as Benedict’s effort to humanize globalization. It can be seen as the global application of John Paul II’s own encyclical on life, Evengelium Vitae.

Without this understanding of the primacy of life, international development is bound to fail: “Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human?”

Throughout the encyclical, Benedict is unsparing in the ways in which the current international order contributes to this failure; no major front in the war over life is left unmentioned, from population control, to bioethics, to euthanasia.

But none of this should come as a surprise. Since at least as far back as the UN’s major conferences of the 1990s—Cairo and Beijing—Benedict has known that the UN has adopted a model of development conformed to the culture of death. He no doubt assisted John Paul II in his successful efforts to stop these conferences from establishing an international right to abortion-on-demand. At the time, Benedict said, “Today there is no longer a ‘philosophy of love’ but only a ‘philosophy of selfishness.’ It is precisely here that people are deceived. In fact, at the moment they are advised not to love, they are advised, in the final analysis, not to be human. For this reason, at this stage of the development of the new image of the new world, Christians . . . have a duty to protest.”

Now, in his teaching role as pope, Benedict is not simply protesting but offering the Christian alternative, the full exposition of authentic human development. Whether or not the UN can meet the philosophical challenges necessary to promote this true development remains uncertain. But it should not be assumed that Benedict is sanguine; after all, he begins his purported embrace of world government with a call for UN “reform,” not expansion.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: benedict; bxvi; catholic; globalism; integraldevelopment; pope; popebenedict; rc; romancatholic; teilhardism; vatican
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To: Alamo-Girl

AMEN TO THAT!

PTL.


241 posted on 08/22/2009 1:37:05 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Alamo-Girl; xzins
Satan has been trying for a lot longer than a hundred years to thwart the will of God.

And yet Satan already knows he's utterly doomed, and knew it from the get-go. This is what I don't understand. I'm beginning to think it's beyond human comprehension altogether.

This spirit of "tearing down," of demolition, of nihilism and, ultimately, self-annihilation.

It must be necessary in some way for God's Purpose.

But it's a mystery to me.

Thank you so very much, dearest sister in Christ, for your beautiful and gracious essay/post!

242 posted on 08/22/2009 1:46:30 PM PDT by betty boop (Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. —Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: Quix
There does, thankfully, appear to be some evidence to support those assertions. PTL.

In spades, dear brother!

Praise the Lord!

243 posted on 08/22/2009 1:49:26 PM PDT by betty boop (Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. —Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: betty boop; Alamo-Girl; The Invisible Hand; B-Chan; Dr. Eckleburg; IbJensen; Poe White Trash; ...
I'm curious if you ever managed to read any percent of the quotes of our leaders the last 100 years ref'd in my tagline:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81

IF you have read even 25% of them . . .

then I don't understand your ability to write this:

Nobody "planned this from the top." It just emerged from the new technical capabilities which had enormous cultural effects in the political, economic/financial, cultural, and personal spheres.

They and their families have been at "the top" for (some assert) 400+ years. Certainly the last 100 years, their families & cohorts have been at "the top."

As I've noted before . . . I read their assertions in their own primary 'house organ' documents asserting what they were doing and what they were going to do in behalf of bringing about an overt world government.

I estimate that 80-85% or so of what I read about in 1965 in their own publications HAS ALREADY BEEN ACHIEVED. And the rest is looming close on the very near horizon.

It boggles my mind that ANY FREEPERS could remotely doubt the above--particularly since OThuga's Selection and demonstration of a plethora of such goals, means, attitudes, meanness, ruthlessness etc. When one has Kissinger, Soros, Brezenski, Scuba Teddy and a long list of "at the top" others have been publicly trumpeting that OThuga is THE ONE to bring us [overtly] INTO THE WORLD GOVERNMENT . . .

Perhaps you could explain to me . . . more clearly . . . how such assertions as mine about such facts are about ????straw men???? Perhaps I have a very very different definition than you do.

Thanks. By God's Grace and Christ's Blood alone, I'm not an evil man.

It's not an issue, per se, for the average evil man to read the Pope's words and construe them however they will.

IT's a very different matter for the very very tangibly and increasingly overtly ruling satanic oligarchy to read them and take them as support and assistance toward their satanic goals . . .

And for them to then engineer complementary other documents and propaganda; mass manipulations a la OThuga's use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques the last Campaign . . . supporting other publications spring-boarding off the Pope's enclyclical to draw more folks down the yellow brick road more mindlessly . . . AT LEAST MAKING IT LOOK LIKE they and the Pope have been working in concert toward the same world government goals and ends.

AT LEAST the Pope opened himself up wholesale for such efforts on the part of the ruling oligarchy. That's more than a little puzzling, to me.

244 posted on 08/22/2009 1:58:08 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Star Traveler

WOW!

Talk about entering a thread with a WHAM!

Thanks.

Sounds like an important ministry.


245 posted on 08/22/2009 2:06:11 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Star Traveler

Sounds like a bunch of useful links.

Thanks.


246 posted on 08/22/2009 2:07:29 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Star Traveler

Important points, I think.

This paragraph is particularly resonant:

= =

This pope never claimed to be God, but he took pleasure in being addressed with titles reserved for God alone. He usurped the titles “Holy Father” from God the Father, “The Head of the Church” from the Lord Jesus Christ and “The Vicar of Christ” from the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send in His place. John Paul often sat in pompous arrogance on his royal throne as his loyal subjects knelt before him. Never did he refuse worship as Peter did when men fell at his feet. Peter, knowing that only God deserved such reverence, immediately ordered: “Stand up; I too am just a man” (Acts 10:26).


247 posted on 08/22/2009 2:09:19 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Quix
It's not an issue, per se, for the average evil man to read the Pope's words and construe them however they will. IT's a very different matter for the very very tangibly and increasingly overtly ruling satanic oligarchy to read them and take them as support and assistance toward their satanic goals . . .

Whatever, dear brother in Christ.

But WHY do you blame the Pope for any of this? He's trying to get you to SEE such things, so to avoid and escape the designs of "the satanic oligarchy"!!!

248 posted on 08/22/2009 2:37:29 PM PDT by betty boop (Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. —Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: betty boop

I remain unsure at all

of WHAT the Pope’s goal(s) were vis a vis the encyclical—and that after weeks of pondering . . . months?.

Am still curious if you’ve managed to read any of those quotes ref’d in my tagline.


249 posted on 08/22/2009 2:39:32 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: betty boop; Dr. Eckleburg; Quix

First and foremost, you accept the pope as a spiritual leader, and so your whole perception of him stems from that. Your view is rigged from the beginning. The same is true of the Obama voters. On the other side are those of us who see mere men, world operatives, and therefore we are naturally skeptic, and we do not look at them thru rose colored glasses. This peace and love that you see are your own constructs.


250 posted on 08/22/2009 2:41:27 PM PDT by 1000 silverlings (everything that deceives, also enchants: Plato)
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To: Star Traveler
...he brings very good and precise insight into the Catholic Church...

Satan is the father of all lies.

I rebuke your post 240 in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

251 posted on 08/22/2009 2:49:46 PM PDT by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)
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To: Star Traveler

I rebuke your posts 238 and 239 in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

A more vile glob of anti-Catholic hatred I cannot recall ever seeing.


252 posted on 08/22/2009 2:53:33 PM PDT by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)
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To: Star Traveler
I was taught from the Catechism that salvation was by faith plus baptism, the sacraments, good works, law keeping, the sacrifice of the Mass, indulgences, purgatory and penance.

He learned poorly.

253 posted on 08/22/2009 2:57:25 PM PDT by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)
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To: Quix; Dr. Eckleburg; betty boop
They and their families have been at "the top" for (some assert) 400+ years. Certainly the last 100 years, their families & cohorts have been at "the top." As I've noted before . . . I

What has happened to the USA has been planned, all of the things that have swiftly occurred like dominoes falling have not just come out of the blue.

We were supposed to have checks and balances in our government and a free press to keep watch, and keep the crooks honest. Instead we have families of elites generationally taking over the seats that were to be for representatives of the people, but instead they are bought and paid for by special interests. Anyone that doesn't think these reps are blackmailed and owned must be living in Mary Poppins land. They no longer care anything about the people or the USA, that must be painfully obvious by now to the most true believer in freedom and the Republic

The people let this go on, but the press has mislead them, as had the lying Obama types.

These evil people are so entrenched that it's probably not even possible to get rid of them without divine intervention. There is no shortage of tyrants as history shows, wanting to take over the world- it's inevitable that they will always be trying to.

So we can be pretty confidant when any world leader blows smoke in our eyes promising world-wide peace and love, that even tho they themselves may look like an angel, likely a dragon is speaking, especially today.

254 posted on 08/22/2009 3:06:16 PM PDT by 1000 silverlings (everything that deceives, also enchants: Plato)
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To: OLD REGGIE

Old Reggie! Where have you been? I’ve missed you.


255 posted on 08/22/2009 3:12:08 PM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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To: Quix

LOL. Don’t bet the farm on it.


256 posted on 08/22/2009 3:14:15 PM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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To: Star Traveler

Thank you, Star Traveler. Great post. Hope it opens some eyes, if they’ll even read it.


257 posted on 08/22/2009 3:18:56 PM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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To: betty boop; Quix; 1000 silverlings
The Pope is trying to rescue us from "the satanic powers of globalism!"

How is this pope going to rescue us when he's proposing a single ruling global authority over every facet of our lives, liberty and government?

It seems you're seeing one thing and describing quite another.

Perhaps the pope envisions the Roman Catholic church as this single ruling global authority "with teeth" which will live so compatibly and charitably with globalism. Think that's what he has in mind?

Because the question remains unanswered. WHO is this global authority of which the pope waxes so eloquent?

258 posted on 08/22/2009 3:21:21 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

The Catholic Church has been “globalist” since it established itself at the heart of the Empire. Anyone who says otherwise is deluded. Keep in mind, I don’t think “globalism” in and of itself is a bad thing. I just am opposed to “global government” whether temporal OR ecclesiatical.


259 posted on 08/22/2009 3:23:01 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Petronski

Every single time someone who was Catholic and has left the church speaks on the subject, you and others say they were poorly catechized. That is such NONSENSE. God showed them the truth and they got the heck out of that heretical institution. I pray you will see the truth and leave yourself.


260 posted on 08/22/2009 3:24:59 PM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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