Posted on 08/18/2011 5:58:55 AM PDT by NYer
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives at Madrid's Barajas airport from Rome, August 18, 2011. The Pope arrived in Spain's capital for a four-day visit culminating in a mass on Sunday in the Cuatro Vientos aerodrome which over two million people are expected to attend.
MADRID - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality he says is behind Europe's current economic crisis. The pontiff insisted that morals and ethics must play a greater role in formulating economic policy in the future.
"Man must be at the centre of the economy and the economy must not be measured only by the maximization of profit but according to the common good," the pontiff told reporters aboard his plane as he travelled to Madrid for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day.
The weeklong Catholic event is taking place against the backdrop of the European debt crisis, which has hit Spain hard.
Benedict's plane touched down in Madrid shortly before noon (1000 GMT) to a crowd of hundreds of young pilgrims cheering and waving mainly Spanish flags.
Pope Benedict was met off his plane by King Juan Carlos Queen Sofia. Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and conservative opposition leader Marian Rajoy, the man forecast to take power in November elections, were also present.
Many Spaniards have balked at the cost of the visit at a time of economic difficulty for many. Spain has a nearly 21 per cent jobless rate.
Hours before the pontiff's arrival, riot police and protesters opposed to his stay clashed in downtown Madrid. Police said eight demonstrators were arrested and 11 people were injured in the disturbances Wednesday night in the city's Puerta del Sol plaza.
On Tuesday, police arrested a chemistry student working as a volunteer for the pope's visit on suspicion he was planning a gas attack on protesters opposed to the pontiff's visit, officials said. The 24-year-old Mexican student, identified by the Mexican Embassy in Madrid as Jose Perez Bautista from Puebla state, was expected to appear in a Madrid court Thursday.
Organizers expect a million or more young people from 193 countries to attend the festival.
The main events are a prayer vigil with the 84-year-old Pope and outdoor sleepover for pilgrims Saturday night at a sprawling air base, and Mass there the next morning.
The pope's attendance shows how much a priority he places on this economically troubled country, which has departed sharply from its Catholic traditions and embraced hedonism and secularism. In the economic bust, he may be hoping to lure back some of his straying flock.
This will be the third time the pontiff has visited Spain since his papacy began in 2005.
The visit also comes as Spain gets ready for early elections in the fall. While the church officially keeps out of politics, it will be sure to be watching closely because the outcome could affect Spain's direction on hot-button ethical issues.
The election will pit the ruling Socialists, who irked the Vatican with social reforms including gay marriage and a law allowing 16-year-olds to get abortions without parental consent, against conservatives who tend to back church thinking on such issues and are heavily favoured to win.
In Spain the church faces a congregation for whom being Catholic is more a birthmark than a way of life. A poll released in July says that while 72 per cent of Spaniards identify themselves as Catholic, 60 per cent say they "almost never" go to Mass and only 13 per cent every Sunday.
Except for a trip Friday to a historic monastery in El Escorial, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Madrid, the Pope will spend the whole visit in Madrid, meeting with young people, hearing confession from some of them, riding through the city in his pope-mobile and greeting young nuns, seminarians and university professors, among other activities.
In Plaza de la Independencia (near Cibeles), he will pass through the Puerta de Alcalá with youth from all the continents. After this event, he will travel in Popemobile to Plaza de Cibeles.
1 PM ET (Live) & 10:30 PM ET (Encore)
Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/wyd2011/coverage.asp#ixzz1VNvu3YLp
So, this Pope has either not read or fundamentally disagrees with Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’. Especially it is odd to think that the current economic travails have anything to do with profits. I would have attributed them to monomaniacal devotion to regulation and deification of the earth in place of God. Wouldn’t that be a far worse heresy than wanting to earn a nickel on the dollar?
A young woman wearing the World Youth Day yellow shirt, center, argues with demonstrators protesting the visit of Pope Benedict XVI at Madrid's central Sol square Wednesday Aug. 17, 2011. The Pope is due to arrive Thursday for a four-day visit to celebrate World Youth Day, and thousands of protesters railing against his visit marched through Madrid to the Sol plaza where they have held months of demonstrations against the government's anti-austerity policies.
Pilgrims pray as protesters try to set a World Youth Day flag on fire during a demonstration against what they claim is the expensive cost of the papal visit in central Madrid coinciding with the second day of the World Youth Day meeting August 17, 2011. Pope Benedict arrives in Spain on Thursday for a four-day visit to a traditionally Catholic country that has become highly secular. The protesters did not burn the flag in the end because other fellow protesters stopped them from doing so.
I wonder how many of these idiots have anything resembling a practical education.
John Paul II disliked capitalism that resulted in women selling their bodies and when people put making money over making families. I think Benedict is against the concept that you should bankrupt and indebt yourself for material things you can’t afford.
Now the Pope lectures us on economics. Perhaps next he will lecture us on how many moons revolve around Jupiter.
Spain, with 21 percent unemployment, doesn’t have enough socialism? My goodness, does he want 40 percent unemployment?
Even the expression “profits at all cost” makes no sense. Profits only comes from cost be low relative to benefit, not from cost being high.
You nailed it perfectly.
Without "profit," there are no products produced for your redistribution engine to redistribute.
It's not rocket surgery.
“You nailed it perfectly.”
Wrong...!
“Profit” is a measure of how efficiently an entity utilizes the raw materials at its command.
Which has what to do with the profit motive? Again, the issue he is obliquely raising, which, as he is one of the most intelligent men alive today, he must certainly realize, is governments indulging in deficit spending which creates no earning assets. Any second-year econ student knows this (though many may not realize that is what they know).
This could be a leftist newspaper quoting the Pope out of context, of course. Wouldn't THAT be shocking. [rolleyes]
“So, this Pope has either not read or fundamentally disagrees with Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’.”
Why would you assume such a thing? Have you understood the complete context of the Pope’s remarks and are you aware of his comments on the dangers of socialism/statism?
Wrong...!
...by which you mean....?
I am quite aware of Pope Benedict’s actual teachings, which is why I made the suggestion he may well have been quoted out of context in my post just before yours.
Thing is, he is also quite a savvy quote-meister, so I’m surprised he said something so easily wrenched out of shape (again, if that is what has happened here).
The problem is government overspending (socialism).
The fact that the Pope claims that production (profit) is the problem speaks volumes.
I sense an agenda on the Popes part, and a fundamental lack of morality. It is immoral to steal from people and that is what he is supporting.
“Man must be at the centre of the economy and the economy must not be measured only by the maximization of profit but according to the common good,”
AKA Socialsim.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Religion is not generally compatible with freedom.
The reason catholicism is consider an “acceptible” faith is because it learned it’s place long ago.
The unspoken deal is that these “acceptible” faiths are allowed to exist and take their cut as long as they don’t step on the toes of the state.
Kind of like 2 rival mafia families. “There’s enough here for everybody if we work together”.
Hence the problematic nature of Islam today. It doesn’t want to recognize existing governments. It’s “getting too big for its britches”, so to speak.
The ideal solution for the state is to co-opt it. But so far that’s been difficult.
No matter. There are plenty of christians and jews available to fight it.
And so it goes...
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