Posted on 03/08/2009 9:04:22 AM PDT by stfassisi
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- Matthew 16:26
This will be interesting.
Most economic theories/systems have weaknesses in them. But, total government control of the wealth of any nation is a prescription for disaster. That is why Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclycal that stated unequivically that no one can be a Catholic and a Socialist.
Capitalism is still the best bet for freedom. However, I must write this caveat - without any moral code of values such as the Judeo-Christian ethic, capitalism sinks to degradation with unbridled greed which recently has been quite egregious. And, I think that is part of the reason why the left is so powerful today. It opens up the whole system to derision and makes all businesses targets by those who are envious (and unfortunately many people are envious).
We need to get control of the culture again!
Pope needs to stick to subjects he knows about; there are plenty of such issues requiring his attention.
The Catholic Church used to teach “Subsidiarity” which is a condemnation of centralized power and a rebuke against Communism and Socialism.
Now, sadly, it is hard to find a Catholic Priest who knows much of anything about economics or the evils of government power. Most Priests see little or no difference between voluntary charity, and the “charity” which is enforced by the barrel of a gun.
Church doctrine has not changed, but it is no longer taught.
Good Catholic Democrats everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief that their Leader did not mention false prophets.
And the free enterprise system as developed in the United States comes closest to meeting the Church’s criteria.
What would you know about what the Pope may or may not know? And since the Pope speaks on behalf of a very learned organization what would you know about what the Catholic Church hierarchy may or may not know?
Was this just a flippant remark or do you have a specific definition?
The Pope isn't going to tell us how to set up a credit default swap or how to recapitalize a bank. He's going to talk about the underlying morality which should form the basis for all fields of human endeavor, including economics and the market place.
When one surveys the pile of ashes that used to be Wall St., it's to escape the conclusion that moral failure has played a large part in the current catastrophe.
China is a very good example of what happens when Capitilism is not backed by Judeo-Christian ethics.
I suspect that many, many Latin Rite American Freepers will be disappointed with +BXVI’s encyclical.
I don’t know. I just hope he doesn’t issue it until after 3/25 because that’s when I’m doing my class on Catholic Social Doctrine. It’d be a drag if he issued it on, like, 3/24 and I had to stay up all night reading it and redoing my class ....
The result of the free enterprise system and its gross misunderstand of what freedom is has led to corruption and to much power of government leading to such things as the protection of pornography ,abortion etc.. as what man calls human freedom.
This is not freedom,It's enslavement to sin!
Blessed Pope LeoX III and others understood that how a state should operate
Excerpt from Encyclical
“” We have said that the State must not absorb the individual or the family; both should be allowed free and untrammeled action so far as is consistent with the common good and the interest of others. Rulers should, nevertheless, anxiously safeguard the community and all its members; the community, because the conservation thereof is so emphatically the business of the supreme power, that the safety of the commonwealth is not only the first law, but it is a government's whole reason of existence; and the members, because both philosophy and the Gospel concur in laying down that the object of the government of the State should be, not the advantage of the ruler, but the benefit of those over whom he is placed. As the power to rule comes from God, and is, as it were, a participation in His, the highest of all sovereignties, it should be exercised as the power of God is exercised—with a fatherly solicitude which not only guides the whole, but reaches also individuals.”
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/L13RERUM.HTM
What makes you think this very learned and spiritual man knows nothing a about this?
“I’m doing my class on Catholic Social Doctrine.”
+John Chrysostomos “On Wealth and Poverty”.
Catholic social teaching goes well beyond abortion. In America we have many urgent issues that beg for our attention, from immigration to health care to poverty to crime and punishment to homelessness. I worry that those Freepers who are crying the loudest in their demands that the Pope act to excommunicate abortion supporting politicians are largely doing it out of religious partisanship because of the effect that excommunication will have on the political careers and support of many high profile Democrats. If an Encyclical is issued that doesn't toe the Republican line I fully expect many Freepers to go nuts demanding the Church shut up and stay out of American politics.
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