Posted on 07/22/2015 6:53:22 AM PDT by EBH
Vatican City, Jul 22, 2015 / 03:31 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ recent trip to Latin America has rekindled questions about whether he endorses socialism, or even communism.
The gift of a “communist crucifix” from Bolivia’s president Evo Morales and uncertainty over the Pope’s response fueled controversy for several days, while Morales told the Associated Press after the visit that he thought that the Pope’s emphasis on a world without exclusion amounts to socialism.
“I don't know whether it’s communism, but it is socialism. He's talking about community, about living in harmony,” Morales said July 10. He added: “I feel like now I have a Pope.”
But is it true? What does Pope Francis really believe?
A closer look at the Pope’s speeches and writings reveals an answer that is both complex and nuanced.
On one hand, the Pope has criticized greed and the idolatry of capital on numerous occasions, most recently in a lengthy, colorful July 10 address to the Second World Meeting of the Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The congress discussed challenges facing the poor and the marginalized.
“An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind,” the Pope lamented. He alluded to a remark of St. Basil of Caesarea, which described the unfettered pursuit of wealth as “the dung of the devil.”
“Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home,” the Pope’s speech continued.
Francis also raised eyebrows in his 2013 apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” in which he criticized theories which assume that economic benefits for businesses and investors will “trickle down” the economic ladder to the poor and middle classes.
Such views, the Pope said, express “a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
Do these criticisms of unregulated capitalism and the idolatry of money amount to an endorsement of socialism? Not really, says Gregory Weeks, a Latin America specialist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Pope Francis is “not advocating for the government to take over everything,” Weeks told the Associated Press. He cautioned against conflating warnings on the harms of capitalism with a push for socialism.
In fact, the Pope has directly rejected Marxism. He says that some of its tenets regarding the poor may sound similar to those of Christianity, but he firmly rejects attempts to equate the two.
“The Marxist ideology is wrong,” he told Italian Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli in a late 2013 interview when questioned about his economic views.
Francis has said that he finds it “strange” that people make these accusations against him.
“If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily,” he said in an October 2014 interview.
In an interview earlier that year with the Roman daily Il Messagero, he said that while concern for the poor is a mark of the Gospel and Church tradition, rather than an invention of communism.
“I must say that communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian,” he said, recalling the Beatitudes and the story of the Final Judgment in Matthew 25. “Poverty is the center of the Gospel. The poor are at the center of the Gospel.”
So if Francis has been open in criticizing aspects of both capitalism and socialism, what system does he espouse? The answer to that question is less clear. So far, he has not laid out a concrete or thorough vision of a detailed system that he supports.
But one clue may be hiding in the Pope’s own experience of growing up in a lower middle class family in Argentina, a family that could afford very little luxury or extra spending, but where basic needs – such as housing, food and clothing – were met with dignity, and one parent – his mother – could stay at home and be “the heart” of the family.
Viewing the Pope’s words through the lens of his personal history would suggest that he may be thinking not so much about a global economy, but a family economy. In this view, a just society is one that allows for the majority of people to enjoy the situation in which he grew up: In other words, a national economy that is focused on providing for basic needs, centered around the family.
References to the family are common in Pope Francis’ addresses, and are often linked to his comments on the economy.
“The family constitutes the best ‘social capital’,” the Pope said in Ecuador during his most recent trip. “It cannot be replaced by other institutions. It needs to be helped and strengthened, lest we lose our proper sense of the services which society as a whole provides.”
“Those services which society offers to its citizens are not a type of alms, but rather a genuine ‘social debt’ with respect to the institution of the family, which is foundational and which contributes to the common good.”
Whether this is the correct lens through which to understand the Pope remains to be seen. But the Pope may have a chance to directly address the matter when he visits the United States in September.
The topic came up during the papal flight from Latin America back to Rome July 12. Journalist Anna Matranga, of the U.S.-based CBS News, asked the Pope about his message that the global economic system often imposes a profit mentality at any cost in a way that works to the detriment of the poor.
“This is perceived by Americans as a direct criticism of their system and their way of life,” Matranga said.
The Pope responded that his words criticizing the global economy are not new.
“I heard that there were some criticisms from the United States,” he said. “I heard about it but I haven’t read about it, I haven’t had the time to study this well, because every criticism must be received, studied, and then dialogue must ensue. You ask me what I think. If I have not had a dialogue with those who criticize, I don’t have the right to state an opinion, isolated from dialogue, no?”
“Yes, I must begin studying these criticisms, no? And then dialogue a bit with this,” he said.
It is possible that the Pope could use his visit to the United States as an opportunity to clarify the various perceptions of him that still persist in the public narrative. But with a Pope as unpredictable as Francis, it’s anyone’s guess what he will say.
putting it simply, YES, he is socialist...
Absolutely.
He certainly detests free market capitalism.
He must be a Marxist. He took a shine to the Crucifix made in the form of a hammer and sickle given to him by a Marxist.
Is the Pope Catholic?
No the question is....
Is the Pope the old Soviet Bear -—— in the woods?
I don’t know the pope is socialist, but he comes from a country that has had socialist leadership, he comes from an order that has extolled socialist ideology, and he has himself been saying things that sound socialist.
On a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 meaning ‘definitely socialist’, I’d put this pope at about 80 right now. There’s more reason to think he is than that he isn’t.
Well, according to my Mother an “old Country” devout Catholic, he’s a communist.
NO.
When he says that capitalism is one of the greatest evils facing mankind......what else can he be Commie, Marxist, socialist, they’re all alike.
Is the Pope a socialist?
The question answers itself...
That is the phrase many of my Catholic family uses. “Catholic Socialism!”
Which begs a rather large question.
But he comes from Argentina-
They have many Military Dictator ships/juntas-
BUT “claim” to be free market capitalists- complete
lies- just like Bolivia-(communist), Venezuela(communist)
Argentina is moving to a socialist/communist hell hole-
If this dupe of a pope thinks the socialists in these
countries are going to help the poor-??? he is an idiot
Capitalism- has helped MORE poor than ANY other man made system- this “dupe “ should be preaching on saving your
soul, turning to CHRIST, prayer to GOD!!
JUST WAIT-— the encyclical on the “FAMILY” will show if
this priest is faithful- or another Judas- a fallen apostle
He’s a Peronist through and through.
It’s bad form to imply a communist is a socialist
It angers them both
Very very bad form
This is an excellent observation, I believe.
Catholic ping!
Assuming that is close to the Pope's summation of capitalism, I think he has it wrong.
Capitalism is less about the pursuit of wealth than it is a description of the state of fallen humans, that they will first seek their own good as a consequence of their selfish natures.
And I think that's Francis's belief about capitalism as well. He's saying what he's saying though because he doesn't want people to remain in that state, that fallen damaged state. That's the most charitable I can be given his statements on the economy.
My main objection to him is two-fold: 1. He doesn't seem to care about speaking precisely which may be all well and good even as a cardinal, but as Pope he simply doesn't have that luxury.
2. If he really does believe that capitalism is the natural product of fallen humanity, and this is why he speaks against it, he should, in my opinion, have a ready made suggestion about a better economic system or not speak about it at all. If he really does believe that capitalism is the best fallen man can do, economically, then he should state that clearly and also emphasize the solution to this whatever it might be, in other words. Bemoaning greed is one thing. We all know it's bad to be greedy. What's the best way out of that fallen state though, what's the best way to Jesus, in other words. THAT is what he should be focusing on, as Pope and even just as a shepherd of a flock. He's not an economist he wasn't "hired" to do that. He was chosen to lead the Church to Christ, not bemoan global warming or the pursuit of money over all else. < /rant >
1. I'm amazed at the number of people who are offended by the Corpus (image of the Crucified Jesus) on a Cross, who are weighing in on this issue: that of The Crucified being depicted on a symbol of what has caused so much evil, pain and heartache in its forms. Which forms? I'm sure, brethren, we can agree that the ideologies of communism, socialism, Marxism, Nazism are all of the same ilk: atheism; devotion to the false god of the state and its despot; the cruelest of murders to those unwanted, "inconvenient", unable to work to support the state.
What was that symbol in Roman times? The emperor who deemed himself a god and demanded tribute (with his face on it, besides); the gods of the Romans; and the cruelest and most ignominious weapon of destruction, designed to strike terror at its sight outside city walls: the cross. Given this, my first impression was that the monk who initially carved this was making a statement at how these related ideologies are the kind of scourge to Christianity today that crucifixion was in ancient Rome- and that Jesus would overcome, just as He did in His Suffering and Death on the Cross.
2. There once was a man named Giovanni Francesco di Bernadone, who went from being man-about-town to becoming the percieved village idiot. In his younger days he had a little education, and was about upper-middle class. Then something happened: he decided that whatever people thought of him, he'd put aside or give away what he had and instead hang out with all the "inconvenients"- because he had a love for all God made- even his enemies. I'm sure there were a lot of people scandalized that he went to visit the head of the Saracens (Muslims). Fact is, he was trying to make peace. It didn't happen.
What did happen was that he began a movement that changed the world for all time. He was St. Francis of Assisi, noted for his love of nature, and from whom Pope Francis took his name.
My point here is even heroes, even Our Savior Himself, had times in their lives when people were scandalized by whom they chose to hang out with, what they decided to do with their lives, and their opinions on things.
Do I think Pope Francis is a Socialist, Marxist, whatever? Pius XII was certainly no Fascist. St. John Paul was neither a Nazi nor a Communist. This is a man who is a lot more home-spun than the scholars we're used to. He not only comes from a different country than his predecessors, but a different continent in a different hemisphere. And, I believe in my heart that there's a reason why God put him where he is. He's definitely at his stage when he looks foolish in the eyes of the world. But the world isn't always the best barometer in spiritual matters. I watch and pray, because history has shown that sometimes its "fools" manage to really come through in a crunch- with God's help- and do more good than anyone ever expected...
OK people, we get the bear “jokes.” Can we move on please? Personally, the idea of someone defecating in church pews, whatever denomination, is repulsive and carrying things a bit too far. Catholic, Protestant, it’s still a place of worship being referred to. Justa-little-R*E*S*P*E*C*T (just a little bit?) for one another...
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