I do still find his association of government intervention and authoritarianism with works of charity and aid for the poor troubling, though.
Finally we get another truth about the Pope. The lamestream media (and even some Catholic sources, have been mistaken.
Simply put, Liberation Theology is an attempt to interpret Scripture through the plight of the poor. It is largely a humanistic doctrine. It started in South America in the turbulent 1950s when Marxism was making great gains among the poor because of its emphasis on the redistribution of wealth, allowing poor peasants to share in the wealth of the colonial elite and thus upgrade their economic status in life. As a theology, it has very strong Roman Catholic roots.
Liberation Theology was bolstered in 1968 at the Second Latin American Bishops Conference which met in Medellin, Colombia. The idea was to study the Bible and to fight for social justice in Christian (Catholic) communities. Since the only governmental model for the redistribution of the wealth in a South American country was a Marxist model, the redistribution of wealth to raise the economic standards of the poor in South America took on a definite Marxist flavor. Since those who had money were very reluctant to part with it in any wealth redistribution model, the use of a populist (read poor) revolt was encouraged by those who worked most closely with the poor. As a result, the Liberation Theology model was mired in Marxist dogma and revolutionary causes.
As a result of its Marxist leanings, Liberation Theology as practiced by the bishops and priests of South America was criticized in the 1980s by the Catholic hierarchy, from Pope John Paul on down. The top hierarchy of the Catholic Church accused liberation theologians of supporting violent revolutions and outright Marxist class struggle. This perversion is usually the result of a humanist view of man being codified into Church Doctrine by zealous priests and bishops and explains why the Catholic top hierarchy now wants to separate itself from Marxist doctrine and revolution. Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/liberation-theology.html#ixzz36bG52R9f
Marxist were, among other things, militant atheists. They always seek to suppress faith.
Only those who are truly ignorant of marxism can accuse the Holy Father, the leader of the Church, a man of faith, of being a marxist.
Another thing, the real communists are the ones who write articles which try to make us think he is a communist just like them. They think that they win when they work to make us think that he has compromised his position.
They worked to make Pope Pius XII a nazi sympathizer. And whenever Clinton or Obama have spent time speaking with the pope they always come out of the room and mysteriously the pope has changed his entire position on abortion to match Clinton and Obama's pro-death views.
The truth is that the 20th and 21st centuries have had the highest concentration of holy popes of anytime is history outside of the first few centuries where every pope was martyred.
“Given the insults to the present pope appearing of late on these pages, especially those accusing him of being some sort of socialist,”
The Church has had good Popes and it has had BAD Popes. This one is NOT a good pope. The Church will survive
Sorry but I saw very little in all those words that distinguishes him from a Communist or socialist. In saying to the Communists “”you are Christian “ he’s equating the two or that “we were Communists before you were”.
He makes no effort to walk back his statement that it is up to governments to redistribute wealth - steal from Paul to give to Peter - which is the essence of communism.
If he were president he would govern very much like our current socialist in the white house - do you doubt that?
If only he - like so many prior popes - hadn't said so many other things that also made him sound like a political liberal.
The first kind have a chance of digging themselves out of poverty. The second kind will never stop being "poor" until you stop subsidizing them.
Under Juan Peron, the Catholic bishops of Argentina praised the Perons for their "generosity" to the poor, never understanding that it was Peronist policies that caused so many people to be poor.
Catholic clergy should stay away from economic issues. Once they have said "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not covet," anything more means they're out of their depth. Nothing in their priestly training qualifies them to make statements on economic policy.
Good article. One can’t escape the call of the Gospel by sputtering, “Communist!” and turning away. “The community in Jerusalem were of one accord, and no one said that anything he had was his own.” I get so exhausted with just my own family and all the conflicting “Mine! Mine! Mine!” ... but don’t touch MY sports car - see, it’s got MY name on the title transfer! Who ate MY mushroom-tomato salad? Who drank MY Diet Coke?
“What have you that you were not given? So why, then, do you boast as though it were not a gift?” Everything is God’s. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and he owns “my” time, “my” ability, “my” money, “my” car.
When it takes you that long to explain why you are not a communist - you’re a communist. But hey, who am I to judge.