Posted on 07/07/2009 10:30:02 AM PDT by TheRiverNile
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called on Tuesday for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.
The pope made his call for a re-think of the way the world economy is run in a new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both rich and poor nations.
Parts of the encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," seemed bound to upset free marketeers because of its underlying rejection of unbridled capitalism and unregulated market forces, which he said had led to "thoroughly destructive" abuse of the system.
The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence and called for "forms of redistribution" of wealth overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.
Benedict said "there is an urgent need of a true world political authority" whose task would be "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."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Usually when a thoughtful person finds something baffling, they investigate and go to the source, in the this case, the pope's encyclical, before reaching a critical conclusion.
But of course the caveat here is "thoughtful." : )
I’m sorry for snapping at you, and for the lack of clarity.
There are some who refuse such basic formalities out of enmity for the Catholic Church.
Please take me off your ping list.
I can read English and the Pope’s words speak for themselves. If you have something to add to the storyline and not just offering petty pot shots to validate your existence, post it.
Otherwise, the idea that a Romney supporter would know anything about what is “thoughtful”, is laughable.
DONE.
So we have corrupt church leaders to join our corrupt politicians.
“This document isn’t infallible.”
That’s an understatement if there ever was one.
I understand your point. I was being facetious.
Revelation 13:
11: And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12: And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13: And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14: And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15: And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16: And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18: Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Who would have figured that!!! Think we will be required to wear funny hats and bow down before the pope to buy anything under his proposals? I mean, its not as if Catholics themselves don’t believe that the anti-Christ will be the pope.
The spiritual forces assaulting and deceiving leaders of every kind in our era . . . must be incredible.
It is sad to see the lengths and depths it has come to.
I’m quite saddened.
I have read fully at least one of the recent encyclicals on such topics. I was sobered and alarmed then.
I’m more alarmed now. Not sure why. Perhaps because we are closer to that day when such evil will be the full overt law of the globe.
THANK YOU ENORMOUSLY FOR BEING AWAKE to such Biblical truths above and beyond organizational loyalties.
MAY GOD BE THICKLY WITH YOU AND YOURS.
Crickets.
I may be going way out on a limb here but somehow I can't bring myself to believe that the very people angling to control a world government feel themselves constrained by any principle at all, much less one where the government that governs best governs least.
Cordially,
“... We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights . . . “
The Constitution then lays out a government based on the moral tenants of the Bible.
Really? That’s encouraging. Yes, we do need to win over the Hispanics if we’re going to win this war.
And your fixation on one paragraph while ignoring all of the other points that Benedict XVI makes in the rest of the document has greatly distorted your perception of what he is saying. Did you know that (at the end of the introduction) he says (emphasis mine):
"The Church does not have technical solutions to offer[10] and does not claim “to interfere in any way in the politics of States.”[11] She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and skeptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it. Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce. Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: it is a service to the truth which sets us free. Open to the truth, from whichever branch of knowledge it comes, the Church's social doctrine receives it, assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found, and mediates it within the constantly changing life-patterns of the society of peoples and nations[12]."
The first sentence I highlighted contradicts your assertion that the Pope has meddled in temporal political affairs. He explicitly makes no such claim. Which other Vatican documents on social or economic issues have you read?
I beg you to sit down and prayerfully read, not skim, the entire document. As I said before, this Pope does not speak in sound bites. Taking one paragraph of a 50+ page document and overreacting without reading the context it came from or understanding the Catholic thought behind it (he is writing this primarily to Catholics with the understanding that they are familiar with Catholic history and thought) is not a rational approach. However, I can't stop you from running around yelling, "The sky is falling!"
I predict quite seriously that the uproar around it will grow so intense he'll have to alter it himself and remove the offending passages.
Apparently, you have not followed this Pope very closely. People were killed in response to the quote taken out of context from his lecture given at Regensberg University and he did not change what he said. Or when he changed the text of a prayer in the Roman Missal of 1962 and certain parties were still "offended" - he stood his ground. His modus operandi is to look at an issue from all angles before coming to a conclusion. He did not write this encyclical on a napkin and then just decide to publish it. He has looked at it through the lenses of faith and reason, which he has repeatedly said are both necessary.
The enemy seems to have used the Jesuits quite effectively.
Cheers y’all.
Off TO POTtery.
He most certainly is meddling in temporal political affairs, and in a manner so radical that no other Catholic document compares. What other Pope has proposed a World Political Entity in charge of all the economies in the world, and with the expressed, indeed "obvious" according to the Pope, "authority to ensure compliance with its decisions," an authority that can only be ensured by the barrel of a gun?
Again -- focus on what the Pope has actually proposed, not on the flowery, sometimes almost impenetrable, ecclesiastical jargon the Vatican is so skilled at producing, which often obscures more than it reveals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.