Comrade indeed... your post sheds light on that fact. Francis is a liberation theologian from Argentina, plain and simple, a flat out Marxist.
Yet the RF, supposedly a conservative forum, anti-marxist and pro-free market, is flooded with Francis fawners, go figure.
Yet the RF, supposedly a conservative forum, anti-marxist and pro-free market, is flooded with Francis fawners, go figure.
First of all, some conservatives do put too much emphasis on economic issues rather than religious and moral issues. We suffer most of all because we do not live by the Laws of G-d, to which we are each and every one bound. And for all its virtues, capitalism is not a utopian system. It has failures and there are people who under it have nothing. Believe me, I know from personal experience.
That being said, the Catholic Church has been around a long time. It pre-existed the United States and the "American way of life." Its "good old days" are the middle ages and its organic/corporate/guild culture (which many Catholics regard as utopia).
According to Marxism, "socialism" is the final state of historical development, following feudalism and capitalism. Without these intervening stages, socialism cannot come into existence. Capitalism, therefore, must replace feudalism in order for socialism to then replace it in turn. Many Catholics point out that had capitalism not replaced feudalism, Marxism would not even have been a "dirty thought."
Capitalism does indeed have a modernizing and corrosive side. It also has a side of promoting innovation, social mobility, and freedom. But it is not utopia. Only a Theocracy, a Kingdom of G-d on earth, can be a "utopia."
It is not so much Francis' critiques of capitalism that I don't get. It's his theological liberalism that makes FReeper Catholic apologists for him so hard for me to understand.
He's just a man; we can ignore what he says, does, thinks.
Only the CHURCH is All-powerful, ALL-knowing and ALL-loving.
--Catholic_Wannbe_Dude(Hail Mary!)