Posted on 11/28/2013 6:32:32 AM PST by iowamark
"The Pope... has the responsibility, as Christ's ambassador, to remind the rich to help the poor, not to endorse any government to force people to. This is what Christians call free will."
This was said to me yesterday by a close friend and long time client of mine, Andrew. He said this in response to Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation, an 84-page document released this week. The document, which amounts to an official platform for his papacy, attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny."
Andrew is a good man and good Catholic. He, along with his three brothers (also good men and good Catholics) run a manufacturing business near Philadelphia. They employ 75 people. They have good marriages and good kids. Andrew teaches chess three times a week to underprivileged children and will be helping high-school age students find summer jobs this year. His business makes it a point to contribute heavily to charities, hunger relief drives and community organizations. Andrew is significantly involved in his church. The Catholic religion is an enormous part of his life. If there is a heaven, Andrew will go there. If Jesus is there, He will welcome him.
Unfortunately I'm not so sure Pope Francis understands a man like Andrew. I'm not sure he understands Andrew's need for free will. This is a good Pope and a kind person. He is saying the things a Pope should say. He also practices what he preaches. I like him. I respect him. But what the Pope said yesterday was wrong. Wrong in four ways.
1.The Pope is wrong to attack the "idolatry of money." Idolatry means the excessive or blind adoration, reverence or devotion of something, particularly something that's not religious. As an entrepreneur Andrew does indeed revere money. Maybe excessively, maybe not. Good for him. It is because of Andrew's devotion to making money that he has money--more money than many in his community. Is this so bad?
The money allows him to provide for his family and not be a burden on the state. He uses the money to help others, provide jobs and pay for his employees' healthcare. His savings are invested in stocks and bonds that are used by other corporations to build more wealth and employ more people. Business owners like Andrew who idolize, revere, adore and like to make money are the ones who have contributed to an enormous increase in living standards for billions across the world over the past two hundred years.
2. The Pope is wrong when he asks politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare." Governments don't do this. People do this. Businesses do this. It is the taxes that businesses like Andrew's pay which enables our elected officials to provide work, education and healthcare. The Pope should be reaching out to Andrew. He should be saying "what more can I do for you, Andrew, to help you grow your business and make more money so that you can give people jobs?" We don't want handouts. It demeans us. What makes people happy is work. A paycheck. Being able to educate and provide for one's children. This is the essence of a useful life. And it is business owners like Andrew who can do this better than any politician, assuming he's given the freedom.
3. The Pope is right to implore the wealthy to share their wealth, but is wrong when he suggests that "today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills." There will always be a percentage of society who will be poor, whether they are on Caesar's grain dole or getting U.S. food stamps. But this trend has significantly reversed over the past two centuries. Why? Inequality.
People say they hate those celebrities on the red carpet, the sports star who makes $20 million or the CEO who reaped a billion on that public offering. But we really don't hate them. We want to be like them! Inequality motivates people. Humans are innately greedy and never happy with their lot in life. Let us celebrate the rich. And give us all the opportunity to be just like them. It's our rationale for getting up and going to work in the morning. It's our reason for pushing our children to get an education.
4. The Pope is wrong when he complains that when a homeless person dies of exposure it is not news but "it is news when the stock market loses 2 points." He's wrong because, as sad as it is, a homeless person dying affects one person. A drop in the stock market affects millions of lives. It takes away security. It stops business owners like Andrew from buying products, employing people and investing in new ventures that create jobs and opportunities for others. It inhibits companies from raising money that funds future pharmaceuticals, schools, food, energy and all the ancillary industries that support these efforts. The death of the homeless man is tragic. But not as tragic as the impact that a significant loss of wealth has on world progress.
Free will. The encouragement to create more wealth. Investment. Jobs. This is what the world needs. This is what the Pope should be supporting, not lamenting. And this is why he should be reaching out to Catholics like my friend Andrew. Because Andrew is the kind of Catholic and the kind of business owner that is what's good in this world.
First he better look around and see the Vatican Gold from ear to ear....then ask how it got there??
PROBABLY not much is taught in seminaries about the way the wheels of the national economies churn. People of the cloth, aren’t really good business people. There calling is different. They need to respect the economic laws...like supply and demand. God made the economy to be free and independent of the Church and the gov’t.
We are in trouble.
I think it has a lot to do with St. Francis who was a rich person who gave all his riches to the poor and somehow animals came into his life. Anyway, The Pope is not American so I don’t necessarily burden him into believing that he MUST accept the American way on everything. It seems rather unfair to expect him to follow our economics when he did not grow up that way.
There is plenty in the Bible about economics—to the point of protecting wealth and other resources. “The gold and the silver are mine”—ancient bank, do not harm the oil and the wine...The Jesuits just skipped over that part because it didn’t play into their power ambitions.
I am an admirer of the Catholic Church’s stand on any number of religious and moral issues.
But the selection of this individual as head of the Catholic Church was nothing short of catastrophic - for Catholics, for Christians, for Americans and for Europeans.
He is a dreamer who is out of touch with reality.
Hey Pope!
Give unto the Freemen, that which belongs to the Freemen.
He probably preached and believed in Social Justice. It is a theme of the church now and is pure Marxism. You would think the church would be concerned with its own corruption rather than telling the world Marxism works.
Pray America is Waking
The Vatican and the entire Church run in the red, at least in part because of charitable activities (which includes supplying priests and missionaries to places where there is no income).
The big problem with the statements of the Pope or even most of the bishops is not that they’re hypocrtical but that they (a) don’t have any idea what they’re talking about and (b) see the State as the response to all problems.
I’m very disappointed in Francis. Argentina’s problem is not capitalism, but crony capitalism, where a state-controlled economy picks the winners and losers and profits from its choice, creating a fabulously wealthy and powerful government class. Essentially, the pope is supporting statism.
I agree with you 100% please my post above yours before its gone. Happy Thankgsgiving!
ping. :(
The Pope’s native Argentina has followed the path of socialism and the result has been to make a rich country poor. Other countries is SA are following the same example set by the church social justice advocates..much to the suffering of their people. Socialism doesn’t lift people out of poverty..capitalism does.
Unfortunately most of the illegal immigrants from Latin America have these same ideas and are unlikely to change once they get some share of our social welfare programs.
This is a real problem for the Catholic Church. Whatever the Pope said whatever his spinmeisters say, the indisputable fact is that the Pope’s statements were confusing. This confusion is distracting and divisive which is an outcome that should be unwelcome by the Church.
It’s clear that the Pope knows nothing of truly free markets; crony capitalism is not capitalism. The fact that the Pope relies on politicians to provide health care, education and such is simply appalling. In effect, he elevates politicians to the priesthood and government to God.
Disappointing.
It is worth pointing out that the Catholic Church's closeness with government was the key factor which led to the Reformation in the first place.
And the Reformation was what saved the Catholic Church as a leading moral voice in the world. Before Jan Hus, Martin Luther and other Reformation leaders came along, the Catholic Church has begun to worship the power of the almighty government and had strayed too from the Christian moorings which made the church a leading voice for centuries and saved Europe from the conquest by Muslim hordes.
The America which the refugees of excess government power had founded also provided refuge for Catholics who had suffered persecution as well from extreme Reformation zealots who had turned from the persecuted to the persecutors.
Capitalism, as well as religious freedom, was the system which freed them all and allowed them to live and work together in peace in this blessed new land.
Absolutely correct. In 1900, Argentina was in the top ten richest countries in the world. A mere century later, it wasn't even close.
Whatever entrepreneurial spirit survived the decades of Peronism was completely suffocated by the present regime.
The document is mostly about evangelization. It’s the lamestream media that picked up on a short part of it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3096201/posts
Read what it really says. Don’t believe the lamestream media.
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