Posted on 09/21/2015 10:45:19 AM PDT by jazusamo
Pope Francis has created political controversy, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, by blaming capitalism for many of the problems of the poor. We can no doubt expect more of the same during his visit to the United States.
Pope Francis is part of a larger trend of the rise of the political left among Catholic intellectuals. He is, in a sense, the culmination of that trend.
There has long been a political left among Catholics, as among other Americans. Often they were part of the pragmatic left, as in the many old Irish-run, big city political machines that dispensed benefits to the poor in exchange for their votes, as somewhat romantically depicted in the movie classic, "The Last Hurrah."
But there has also been a more ideological left. Where the Communists had their official newspaper, "The Daily Worker," there was also "The Catholic Worker" published by Dorothy Day.
A landmark in the evolution of the ideological left among Catholics was a publication in the 1980s, by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, titled "Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy."
Although this publication was said to be based on Catholic teachings, one of its principal contributors, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, said: "I think we should be up front and say that really we took this from the Enlightenment era."
The specifics of the Bishops' Pastoral Letter reflect far more of the secular Enlightenment of the 18th century than of Catholic traditions. Archbishop Weakland admitted that such an Enlightenment figure as Thomas Paine "is now coming back through a strange channel."
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Wonder what the pope’s explanation for Cuba’s economic success is, or possibly North Korea or Zimbabwe?
It’s making me sick the way the left wing toads in the state controlled “media” is getting all mushy and syrupy over this guy.
No economic system has done more than capitalism to uplift untold millions of people out of poverty and misery than capitalism. If the Pope were truly interested in helping the poor and downtrodden, he would glorify and praise capitalism.
I refuse to use the term “capitalism” to describe my economic philosophy.
“Capitalism” is a term invented by Marx to describe the exploitative economic growth in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.
It ceased to exist after Poor Laws were passed in the late 1840s.
Free enterprise is not an ideology. It is the opposite of an ideology.
I doubt that the left will be too happy with his FIRM stand against abortion and euthanasia...and FOR sexual chastity and marriage between one man and one woman.
;-o
Bump
They don’t believe in Catholicism ...but they believe in this guy. Cult of personality/celebrity worship.
Sowell once again nails it. The pope is nothing but a leftist mouthpiece dribbling out the same old tired failed redistributionist excrement that we’ve been hearing from the communists and their USA branch, the democrats, ever since Marx put their foolish ideas in official form.
Pope Francis will be shocked at all the worldy goods poor Americans have in their homes. This ain’t Argentina Padre.
5.56mm
Interesting how the godless left gets all religious now that the Pope is liberal.
"For the true believer, no proof is necessary and no disproof possible" Stuart Chase. Their ideas ALWAYS fail, but leftists never give up. it's always the same excuse - "We just didn't go far enough." Note socialist logic. When your actions make something bad (like ruining an economy), then increasing the same actions that made the bad thing happen (redistribution, central economic planning) will somehow reverse the trend and make something good happen.
For centuries the Catholic Church aligned itself with royalty. Royalty had the power and they wanted to be part of it.
Now that the politicians have the power and royalty has little, the Vatican is aligning itself with the political structure.
Opportunists - all of them.
I am an active and practicing Roman Catholic. I do not care much for this Pope. As far as I am concerned he has done nothing to bring people back to the fold. I have several friends who love him for liberal views and none of them have returned to church because of him. If he was around during the time of Christ, he would have betrayed Christ for free.
Do NOT, repeat, DO NOT tell boner not obamas bitch, McConnell
We can't do anything till we have the House..
We can't do anything till we have the House and Senate
We can't do anything till we have the House, Senate and White House.
We can't do anything till we have the House, Senate, White House and the Pope
In the context of European politics, the monarchy was vastly preferable to the revolutionary forces which opposed it. I cite France and Russia as perfect examples.
You always need to be careful about throwing the bums out. Sometimes the replacements are even worse...often far worse.
Any honest person seeing the results of centralized government and free enterprise would have to conclude that all the advances in prosperity have come from the free enterprise countries. All of the misery and death have come from the Marxist/socialist/communist governments.
Didn't I read somewhere something about "by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread"?
How do you reconcile that with "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need"?
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