VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the “economy of exclusion” that is taking hold today.
Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who are meeting in Rome this week.
Latin America’s first pope has frequently lashed out at the injustices of capitalism and the global economic system that excludes so much of humanity.
On Friday, Francis called for the United Nations to promote a “worldwide ethical mobilization” of solidarity with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.
He said a more equal form of economic progress can be had through “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.”
Francis had a similar message to the World Economic Forum in January and in h is apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel.” That document, which denounced trickle-down economic theories as unproven and naive, provoked criticism in the U.S. that he was Marxist.
Francis has denied he’s Marxist, and spent years in Argentina battling Marxist excesses of liberation theology. But he has said from the outset that he wants a church that “is poor and for the poor” and ministers to the most marginal of society.
Hey Susie:
A teabagger (sort of) “friend” of mine (who also attends Catholic mass every Sunday) continually forwards emails to me about (fill in blank; you know what I’m talking about.) Well…I received one of those emails just this morning. The subject matter was bumper-sticker level crap about all the “socialists” and “communists” who leech off the system, thus effectively stealing from the altruistic, well-intentioned “Makers.” (Hi, Paul Ryan!…who’s mooched off the system his entire f-n life.) I promptly forwarded a current Salon piece from Katie McDonough,
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/09/paul_krugman_american_inequality_isnt_about_education_or_opportunity_its_about_oligarchs/
after which I forwarded the latest pronouncement from Pope Frank.
I’ve been hearing some serious crickets since that email exchange, now some three or so hours ago.
I often wonder how the teabaggers are able to lower the volume on all that cognitive dissonance when confronted with actual, y’know, facts and reality. And then I remind myself that they’re crazy, which (I assume) makes such rationalizing far easier to accomplish. And no, I’m not being facetious. (But then you already know this. I’m merely being rhetorical on the point.)
Are these people woefully misguided by (largely) oligarch-owned media sources? Of course. Can they still be so clueless, even as stark reality is repeatedly punching them in the face, full contact style? Nothing else can explain such behavior but plain-ass nuttiness. It’s alternately sad-making and infuriating.
OK, I’ll shut up now. Thanks.
‘lower the volume on all that cognitive dissonance . . .’ Hah! True that. Pope Frank’s making it awful hard to be a devout religion basher these days. I’m waiting for him to join an Occupy protest somewhere.
The “Marxist excesses of liberation theology” that Francis fought against come under the heading of violence. He never rejected the core philosophy and theology found in Father Gustavo Gutierrez’s handbook on liberation theology. Pope Francis knows that the capitalist jig is up. (So does Putin.) That if his Church has any hope of surviving the coming realignment that it must not be seen as an obstacle to the change on the horizon. Francis is aware that on this earthly plane you either “lead, follow or get out of the way.” Otherwise you’ll be run over.