A spokesman for the liberal organization Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) has posted on the group’s website a denunciation of what he states were “incendiary remarks about Pope Francis” by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday.
Limbaugh said that Pope Francis was wrong in his apostolic exhortation released this week in which he appears to blame capitalism for the reason why people are poor in the world.
CACG’s Christopher Jolly Hale wrote on Wednesday:
Catholics of all political stripes are disturbed by Rush Limbaugh's incendiary comments this afternoon about Pope Francis. To call the Holy Father a proponent of "pure marxism" is both mean spirited and naive. Francis's critique of unrestrained capitalism is in line with the Church's social teaching. His particular criticism of "trickle down economics" strengthens what Church authorities have said for decades: any economic system which deprives the poor of their dignity has no place within a just society.Contrary to what Mr. Limbaugh suggests, the Catholic Church isn't built on money, but on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ.We call on Mr. Limbaugh to apologize and retract his remarks. We urge other Church organizations and leaders--both ordained and lay--to also condemn Mr. Limbaugh's comments.We proudly stand with Pope Francis as he provides prophetic leadership for the Catholic Church and the entire world.
Following the release of the pope’s exhortation, entitled Evangelii Gaudium, Hale wrote:
Pope Francis's words have given new vigor to what the Church has been saying for decades: 'trickle down economics' and other economic agendas which work against the poor and promote inequality have no place in a just society. Pope Francis's words should have particular resonance here in the United States as we enter into next month's budget negotiations. The pope makes it clear that these budgetary decisions should above all else benefit the poorest of Americans.We make Pope Francis's words our own: "I beg the Lord gives us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people and the lives of the poor!"
In 2009, Accuracy in Media (AIM) reported that CACG had received $200,000 in funding from George Soros's Open Society Institute.
A leader of another Soros-funded Catholic organization, Faith in Public Life (FPL), a group that was founded with the help of John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, also praised Pope Francis’ view of the “tyranny” of trickle-down economics.
John Gehring, Catholic Outreach Coordinator of FPL, praised Pope Francis for his “headline-grabbing comments that Catholicism must not be known exclusively for obsession with a few hot-button issues.”
About the pope’s exhortation, Gehring wrote:
In many ways, this is traditional Catholic teaching about economic justice that builds on the foundations laid in the first social encyclical about capital and labor released in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. But to contemporary American ears accustomed to hearing full-throated Catholic arguments only when it comes to abortion and same sex marriage, this unequivocal economic critique of unfettered markets packs a punch.
(ht Taking Hayek Seriously)
Amazing that for almost the Churches entire history, its members have lived in poverty while the church grew its empire. All of a sudden a concept called Capitalism shows up and its members are wealthier than they ever have been but this is unacceptable because not everyone is as wealthy as everyone else. Yea, or could it be that capitalism and economic well being of the churches members make the church less relevant?
ReplyDeleteWhen the church starts selling off all its assets to help the poor, I'll believe they are sincere, until then they appear to be as dishonest in their beliefs as a European socialist that feeds off of the fruits of capitalism.
Yes, sell off all their assets so they have no capital resources from which to help the poor.
DeleteYou do realize that with all the landed wealth the Church owns, it is also the greatest distributor of charity in the world? The landed wealth makes giving possible. Sell all the land give the money away and what have you got? No ability to continue to help the poor.
In your "case for capitalism" you simply regurgitated leftist claptrap. Awful.
Billionaires own the planet and manage the culture.
ReplyDeleteI find it sad, yet fascinating, that Pope Francis, together with these various left-leaning groups, pretend to care about the material well being of the poor while at the same time attacking the free market system. The free market system, to the extent that it has been allowed to operate by such critics, has done more to relieve the material suffering of the poor than any other economic system in the history of the human race.
ReplyDeleteFurther, the types of interventions proposed by these free market critics are exactly the types of policies that have created the misery that today's poor are suffering from.
Clearly, these critics care more about promoting their interventionist policies than they do about actually helping the poor.
Where is this "unfettered" market that Gehring is talking about?
ReplyDelete.
Philistine Tard.
"I beg the Lord gives us more politicians..."
ReplyDeleteI beg he takes them away!
Is it considered religiously insensitive to offer to a Catholic monetary gain for an exchange of goods and services? Given their leaders preach that commerce is evil, do I offend lay members of the sect when I offer to engage in such exchanges? I don't want to offend anyone's mores by being obtuse, but how do they even get by in their day to day living without capitalism? Feudal communism with compulsory work and a leadership that decides the division of their labors? Or, are they on welfare?
ReplyDeleteThat's largely what makes the Pope's exhortation so absurd. The Benedictine monasteries of old essentially laid the foundation for capitalism. They had division of labor. They had trade and commerce. They had many ways of sustaining themselves as mini-city-states at a time when everything else in Europe was off the deep end.
DeleteI see the Pope's exhortation as a real slap in the face not only of Capitalism but really a kick in the balls of Catholicism.
If the pope thinks we have "unfettered markets" then he's as blind as the common idiot next door.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it. This economy is regulated TO DEATH and I hear people act as if nothing is regulated. What planet are these fucking idiots on?
This is the argument I try to make all the time. People for some reason think we actually have a free market. I make the case to them that what we have is a crony capitalist/fascist system that has no barring what so ever on voluntary exchange.
DeleteUnfortunately, I do not believe that the Pope is an idiot or blind. I believe that the problem is that he cares more about promoting interventionist policies than he does about actually helping the poor.
DeleteAs you made clear, any idiot could see that we do not have "unfettered markets". An honest person, who actually cared about helping the poor, would never make such an absurd claim in their argument.
I used to work with Bob Newhart's sister, Joan, a catholic nun. Our mutual boss was gay. I'm pretty sure Bob has nothing against gays either.
ReplyDelete