Amid accusations of Marxism, Pope Francis has turned the Vatican into the spearhead of radical economic thinkingGood summary in which Ambrose Evans Pritchard comes out on the side of Pope Francis.
The Telegraph
Liberation Theology is back as Pope Francis holds capitalism to account
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Liberation Theology is back as Pope Francis holds capitalism to account
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
8 comments:
"Evangilii Gaudium is the doctrinal statement of this Leftward swing. It decries the "trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system."
Or as he put it later, the hope that free-market growth will lead to greater social justice in the end invariably disappoints. "The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens, instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger and nothing ever comes out for the poor.”
OK, obviously his heart is in the right place... but he (correctly) asserts that "trickle down theories" will NOT bring about a justice that he seeks ... but what then will???
This is the key thing that (so far) he sadly imo remains blind to.
It looks to me so far, as he remains blind to this superior authority that can impose the justice he seeks, he is falling back to a horizontal "charity" as his "solution"; which imo falls short of the mark.
So it remains to be seen if he can progress to the point where he starts to recognize the superior authority, or just will settle for an increased commitment to a horizontal "charity" from the wealthy.
rsp,
I suppose from The Pontiff's perspective it doesn't much matter how, or where from, the real resources are diverted to the poor. Certainly, MMT likes to use the government's fiat to perform redistribution because it should expand production as well, but it isn't the only way. If a rich person spends fiat to buy real stuff for the poor and that fiat would have sat idle, leeching rents from the real economy, the outcome on real resources is not much different than if the government had done it.
Good Point Matt
The vagueness is allowing the Paul Ryan deficit terrorist Ayn Rand Anti-Catholic-Catholics budget hawking austerity Austrian schoolers to take the Pope's words and mold them into a false mandate that government cannot help and only charities can when in fact we need an all out front across the board.
This will only lead to more talk of less regulation in the derivatives sector in the name of profits in disguise.
Religious figures have moral authority, which is diminished by getting involved in policy specifics. The pope is unlikely to go there publicly. This kind of thing is done publicly through signals and carries out internally through the chain of command on a need to know basis.
The pope has sent out several signals along with his general moral exhortation.
1. He is going to be an activist pope.
2. His papacy is going to be revolutionary, cleaning house and seeing a people first agenda.
3. His meeting with Gustavo Gutiérrez signals that Liiberation Theology is in after being out, and it sends a signal to Jesuits around that world that they are free to pursue social justice causes politically.
4. His appointment of Cardinal Marx (oh, the irony) signals that he is in the process of realigning the Church bureaucracy.
These are really big changes.
We shouldn't look at religious leaders as public intellectuals. They are in the business of morals, not political or policy expertise. However, religious institutions have powerful organizations on the ground that can and do influence policy and politics in different countries. So this will have an effect behind the scenes differently in different areas.
Well Tom agree with your assessment of 'religion' here...
But as far as for Christians, Apostle Paul had no problem whatsoever teaching that our institution of govt was the 'superior authority' and that the 'magistrates' in authority were positions that Christians of good acts at least should have no fear of.
"Let every soul be subject to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except under God. Now those which are, have been set under God,
2 so that he who is resisting an authority has withstood God's mandate. Now those who have withstood, will be getting judgment for themselves,
3 for magistrates are not a fear to the good act, but to the evil. Now you do not want to be fearing the authority. Do good, and you will be having applause from it.
4 For it is God's servant for your good. Now if you should be doing evil, fear, for not feignedly is it wearing the sword. For it is God's servant, an avenger for indignation to him who is committing evil.
5 Wherefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of indignation, but also because of conscience." Romans 13
Pretty straightforward teaching here.
For some reason Francis can't get there though at this time... he may not understand what Paul writes here is my hunch... he leans libertarian hence the "liberation theology" whatever that is...
So I dont know where a non-scriptural term like "liberation theology" comes in here... what is this? Some sort of concept of general 'license' or something sounds like...
Looks like more human freelancing going on with this thing wrt Christian leadership (to me anyway).. rsp,
Goog
Looks like the GOP may be cranking up the "soup kitchen express":
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/new-phase-the-war-poverty
I'll try to reserve judgement but I am not hopeful... sadly more "brothers keeper" type stuff looks like.
We'll see if the Pope is buying it...
rsp,
Matt, it's elected governments that are imposing authority. According to traditional religious teaching jaw the great chain of being those under authority should follow it. However, if the authority is unjust then those under it may not obey or even overthrow it. Pope Francis has indicated that he is not there yet. However, he has strongly indicated that policies like austerity and trickle down are unjust and should be changed. I don't see him calling for the rich to be more charitable voluntarily. That's the conservatives reading of it.
Matt
I think that the Pope is gearing up for his own "hat trick."
As we saw with Benedicto, Ratzi came across hard on guidelines and edifices, doing Ariel Sharon type of avalanche control by firing mini-missiles at Bolivian version liberation indigenous as well as the Regensburg lobb at the muslims with history.
Then he ... etc ... finally ended by defrocking the Scottish Cardinal who would have opposed the Argentine move which has the Italian last name because Argentina is like 65% Italian by name ...
So I hope he kicks something out against Merkel and the Ryan/Rand Austrians to such a degree that the pots and pans come out.
In Argentina people line the streets and bang the pots and pans ...
The real problem is the USA Catholic church - divisive the Austrian type will push down the Pots-n-pans type and drown out the Pope's message with both noise and $$$$$.
Someone needs to start with the local Catholic charities which are the dirt-poor versions which are always spouting off Anti-Austrian information - ...
how strong is their words when they still get big $$$ at times from the ultra rich.
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