Posted on 12/17/2013 7:39:21 PM PST by marshmallow
(RNS) Dozens of Catholic leaders are protesting the decision by the Catholic University of America to accept a large donation from the foundation of Charles Koch, a billionaire industrialist who is an influential supporter of libertarian-style policies that critics say run counter to church teaching.
Charles Koch and his brother, David, “fund organizations that advance public policies that directly contradict Catholic teaching on a range of moral issues from economic justice to environmental stewardship,” says a four-page letter to CUA President John Garvey, released Monday (Dec 16)
The letter was signed by 50 priests, social justice advocates, theologians and other academics, including several faculty at CUA in Washington.
The $1 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation was announced last month. Along with $500,000 from the Busch Family Foundation, the Koch gift will underwrite the hiring of three visiting scholars and a “visiting scholar-practitioner from the business world.”
“As you well know, Catholic social teaching articulates a positive role for government, an indispensable role for unions, just tax policies, and the need for prudent regulation of financial markets in service of the common good,” said the letter, also directed to Andrew Abela, dean of CUA’s new School of Business and Economics.
“We are concerned that by accepting such a donation you send a confusing message to Catholic students and other faithful Catholics that the Koch brothers’ anti-government, Tea Party ideology has the blessing of a university sanctioned by Catholic bishops,” it continues.
CUA is the only Catholic university in the U.S. that is sponsored and partially funded directly by the American hierarchy; most other Catholic schools are operated by religious orders. It is also a pontifical university, meaning it is certified by the Vatican.
Critics say that makes the donation, which CUA faculty said is one of the largest......
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
““As you well know, Catholic social teaching articulates a positive role for government, an indispensable role for unions, just tax policies..”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA stop stop my guts are killing me
Gee, hardly anybody complained when Andrew Greeley gave $1 million to the religious studies department at the University of Chicago.
So fifty priests are against accepting money from the Koch brothers because their views are counter to Catholic teaching?
Isn’t abortion against Catholic teaching? Yet Pelosi is a Catholic. Where is their petition on that issue?
Isn’t homosexal relations between priests and altar boys against Catholic teaching? Where is their petition on that issue?
Maybe if the Koch brothers gave 10 million instead of 1 million the reaction would be different.
What is it Churchill was alleged to have said: We have now determined what you are, let’s not haggle over the price.
“As you well know, Catholic social teaching articulates a positive role for government, an indispensable role for unions, just tax policies, and the need for prudent regulation of financial markets in service of the common good”
If this is true, the Catholic Church is meddling where it has no business nor understanding.
I’m guessing that the average Tea Partier gives more to charitable causes than any 10 social justice advocates.
I checked carefully. This was not written by John Semmens, The Arizona Conservative.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
CUA always manages to be a lightning rod for criticism because it actually follows Church doctrine. Like when Banzhaf tried to sue them because they implemented same-sex dorms only.
Their ban on openly pro-choice speakers also irritates people, and this is just another attempt to bash them for not drinking the koolaid like Georgetown.
I’m glad they finally have a separate Business School at last.
The Koch Brothers are far left. The believe in abortion, gay marriage, higher taxes. People act like they are conservative for the sole reason that they often battle union.
So what if it came from the Koch’s, use it to advance the teachings of the church, oh wait we’re talking about an American university so not much chance of that.
“Social justice advocates”?
I guess that’s like calling Jesse and Al “Civil rights leaders”
Can't have any hints of capitalism in Catholic education, can we?
“If this is true, the Catholic Church is meddling where it has no business nor understanding.”
I think it more or less is true. But I agree - the Church is spending time and resources on earthly things that have no eternal value. Best to focus on bringing the lost to Christ.
Wasn't that a mistranslation? :)
what the Church really teaches about Socialism http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/politically-incorrect/socialism/what-the-popes-really-say-about-socialism.html
By Gustavo Solimeo
April 08, 2010
“Hideous”, “destructive”, “wicked”, and “perverted” are only some of the adjectives used by the Popes to describe socialism. From Pius IX to Benedict XVI, the popes have thoroughly and consistently condemned socialism. Given the advance of socialism in America, TFP Student Action is glad to offer its readers a brief selection of thought-provoking quotes from the Popes on the topic.
Click “like” for moral values!
Pius-IX
PIUS IX (1846-1878)
The Overthrow of Order
“You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings.”
(Encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum, December 8, 1849)
Leo-XIII
LEO XIII (1878-1903)
Overthrow is Deliberately Planned
“... For, the fear of God and reverence for divine laws being taken away, the authority of rulers despised, sedition permitted and approved, and the popular passions urged on to lawlessness, with no restraint save that of punishment, a change and overthrow of all things will necessarily follow. Yea, this change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of communists and socialists.”
(Encyclical Humanum Genus, April 20, 1884, n. 27)
Debasing the Natural Union of Man and Woman
“They [socialists, communists, or nihilists] debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust.
(Encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878, n. 1)
The Harvest of Misery
“...there is need for a union of brave minds with all the resources they can command. The harvest of misery is before our eyes, and the dreadful projects of the most disastrous national upheavals are threatening us from the growing power of the socialistic movement.”
(Encyclical Graves de Communi Re, January 18, 1901, n. 21)
St-Pius-X
SAINT PIUS X (1903-1914)
The Dream of Re-Shaping Society will Bring Socialism
“But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, ‘the reign of love and justice’ ... What are they going to produce? ... A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we shall see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people. Yes, we can truly say that the Sillon, its eyes fixed on a chimera, brings Socialism in its train.”
(Apostolic Letter Notre Charge Apostolique [”Our Apostolic Mandate”] to the French Bishops, August 15, 1910, condemning the movement Le Sillon)
Benedict-XV
BENEDICT XV (1914-1922)
Never Forget the Condemnation of Socialism
“It is not our intention here to repeat the arguments which clearly expose the errors of Socialism and of similar doctrines. Our predecessor, Leo XIII, most wisely did so in truly memorable Encyclicals; and you, Venerable Brethren, will take the greatest care that those grave precepts are never forgotten, but that whenever circumstances call for it, they should be clearly expounded and inculcated in Catholic associations and congresses, in sermons and in the Catholic press.”
(Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914, n. 13)
Pius-XI
PIUS XI (1922-1939)
Socialism Cannot Be Reconciled with Catholic Doctrine
“We make this pronouncement: Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”
(Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931, n. 117)
Catholic Socialism is a Contradiction
“[Socialism] is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” (Ibid. n. 120)
Pius-XII
PIUS XII (1939-1958)
The Church Will Fight Socialism to the End
“[The Church undertook] the protection of the individual and the family against a current threatening to bring about a total socialization which in the end would make the specter of the ‘Leviathan’ become a shocking reality. The Church will fight this battle to the end, for it is a question of supreme values: the dignity of man and the salvation of souls.” (“Radio message to the Katholikentag of Vienna,” September 14, 1952 in Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, vol. XIV, p. 314)
The All-Powerful State Harms True Prosperity
“To consider the State as something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated and directed, cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations.” (Encyclical Summi Pontificatus, October 20, 1939, n. 60)John-XXIII
JOHN XXIII (1958-1963)
“No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate socialism”
“Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism. The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production; it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority.” (Encyclical Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961, n. 34)
Paul-VI
PAUL VI (1963-1978)
Christians Tend to Idealize Socialism
“Too often Christians attracted by socialism tend to idealize it in terms which, apart from anything else, are very general: a will for justice, solidarity and equality. They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated.” (Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, May 14, 1971, n. 31)
John-Paul-II
JOHN PAUL II (1978-2005)
Socialism: Danger of a “simple and radical solution”
“It may seem surprising that ‘socialism’ appeared at the beginning of the Pope’s critique of solutions to the ‘question of the working class’ at a time when ‘socialism’ was not yet in the form of a strong and powerful State, with all the resources which that implies, as was later to happen. However, he correctly judged the danger posed to the masses by the attractive presentation of this simple and radical solution to the ‘question of the working class.’” (Encyclical Centesimus Annus - On the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, May 1, 1991, n. 12)
Benedict-XVI
BENEDICT XVI (2005 - present)
We do not Need a State which Controls Everything
“The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person - every person - needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. … In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live ‘by bread alone’ (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3) - a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, December 25, 2005, n. 28)
You would think these people would have learned their lesson from their Obamacare experience but I geuss not.
G-d seems like an afterthought to just about all religious leaders these days, both Christian and Jewish.
But Imams’ speeches are peppered with the word Allah. Perhaps that is why they are getting the converts.
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