Pope Francis

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

The Catholic Church has always been good on the issues of poverty and inequality, at least in terms of rhetoric. Pope Francis has recently made some strong statements that continue that tradition, arguing against greed and indifference. This pope does exude a greater leftist air, I suppose, and the right-wing has not been content to simply ignore these recent statements. Even Rush Limbaugh has come out to defend the forces of capitalism: "It's sad because this pope makes it very clear he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism and so forth.... This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope."

Comments

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I believe it was the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said (and I may be paraphrasing a bit) "Fuck you, I got mine."

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

It may have been right before he spoke on the absolute right of gun ownership
and started passing weapons out.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Jesus also said that "Organized Sharing is the only blasphemy against the Holy Ghost"

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the part where he said, "English is good enough for me, it's good enough for America."

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

A lot of this might be due to a poor translation (http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/11/evangelii-gaudium-54-trickle-down-economics-significant-translation-error-changed-meaning/).

I don't doubt that his leanings are more anti-capitalist than otherwise, but I also think there's an increasing desire among the left to make him one of their own when he probably isn't.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

But it is interesting how the pope seems to often require others to come out
afterward and make corrections and clarifications. This seems to happen with almost every
speech.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Man, you really aren't selective when it comes to supporting your ideology, are you?

Not sure how this explains the right's reaction, anyway, but sure - go ahead and blame "the left."

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

There is no practical difference in 'inevitably' and 'by itself' when one lives in a tar paper shack outside of Reynosa. Or makes a living picking through e-waste in China. Or works for ten cents an hour for fourteen hours a day in a Malaysian sweatshop.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

made some strong statements

That's nice and all. Talk is good. Can anyone demonstrate how this effects any tangible positive benefit?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Beyond public relations, I don't see any.

L.A. Times exposes Cardinal Mahony’s decades-long pattern of shielding child-abusing priests (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/03/l-a-times-exposes-cardinal-mahoneys-decades-long-pattern-of-shielding-child-abusing-priests/)

Sex abuse survivors win as Catholic church in Minnesota forced to name pedo-priests (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/03/sex-abuse-survivors-win-as-catholic-church-in-minnesota-forced-to-name-pedo-priests/)

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I know. I don't think the Church is our way to salvation, heh.
Though, in all fairness, I think they do some impressive charity
work for the world's poor. On balance, the Church is probably
running a deficit in terms of being a positive force for good in
the world.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Rush Limbaugh wouldn't know Jesus if he came up and smacked him in his face.

Most of the "religious" in this country need to read Matthew 6:5 in that book they all claim to love so much.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I think the joke is that Limbaugh and that crowd would be
the new crucifiers. They could not abide such blasphemy
to their established religion.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Jesus might cast out the dope dealers! The Horror!

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

+1

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

More Pope Francis exploits.

~ ~ ~

The leader of the Catholic Church has been quietly sneaking out of the Vatican at night to minister to homeless residents, according to a new report.

“Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women,” writes The Huffington Post.

The report hinted that Pope Francis had sneaked out of the enclave with Archbishop Konrad Krajewski. As Almoner of His Holiness, Krajewski is the Vatican’s point person on giving charity to the poor and visits the destitute nightly.

This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has earned attention and praise for his predilection to serve the needy. Just months after assuming the papacy, he invited nearly 200 homeless people to join him for dinner at the Vatican. He also deplored the plight of homeless people in the first apostolic exhortation of his papacy last week: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

-- Think Progress.org (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/03/3011421/pope-francis-homeless/)

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

That's pretty wild.

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

Also, he used to be a bouncer.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Cool dude!

~ ~ ~

Long before Pope Francis was drawing people back to church, he was keeping troublemakers out of a bar, he told parishioners at a Roman church Sunday.

During a visit to San Cirillo Alessandrino church, located in a working-class suburb of Rome, Francis recounted some of his former jobs, which included sweeping floors, working in a chemistry lab, teaching literature and psychology, and guarding the door as the bouncer at a Buenos Aires nightclub, the Catholic News Service reported. The pontiff’s bouncing gig was first reported back in March by Gazetta de Sud and The Telegraph, but this is the first time he has spoken about it since becoming pope — lighting up social media in the process.

-- Today.com (http://www.today.com/news/coolest-pope-ever-francis-talks-previous-work-nightclub-bouncer-2D11678844?ocid=ansmsnbc11)

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

All of the complaining just goes to show that American conservatives have forgotten what the Church has said for two centuries now.

Fact: The official approved economic system of the Catholic Church is Christian corporatism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_corporatism).
Fact: The Catholic Church has always supported trade unions.
Fact: The Catholic Church is against the death penalty.
Fact: The Catholic Church has ALWAYS supported universal health care, even if provided by the government. So long as it doesn't cover abortions and contraceptions, they're fine with it.
Fact: The Catholic Church has always condemned the "heresy of Americanism".
Fact: The Catholic Church supports eliminating barriers to immigration and allowing free border movement.
Fact: The Catholic Church believes in (their own version of) social justice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_social_teaching).

And this is really why the Catholic Church is not a good ally of American conservatism, which is primarily evangelical and Protestant in its outlook.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

If he wasn't a bit dead, we could ask Kennedy how the right felt about the Catholic church during his political era.

[phildegrave]

Fact: The Catholic Church has always supported trade unions.

Except when it comes to their own institutions:

http://www.post-gazette.com/Op-Ed/2013/09/18/Death-of-an-adjunct/stories/201309180224

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

So long as it doesn't cover abortions and contraceptions

And there's the fly in the ointment, right there.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The this Pope is so misunderstood by 'leftists'" by conservatives is so dumb.

It's like the last 150 years of Catholic teaching on social justice, poverty, "the idolatry of the marketplace," American consumerism, unions, and fundamental human dignity doesn't exist. And it certainly bothers the hell out of American evangelicals who follow the notions of "prosperity gospel." The American Catholic Conference of Bishops, who all speak perfectly fine English, condemned Paul Ryan's budget plan as 'unmoral.' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/ryan-budget-catholic_n_1434919.html) And the recent Bishops' conferences are pretty conservative. And when Ryan was boasting that his political views were based on his personal faith as a Roman Catholic, sixty American Catholic theologians issued a press report, and the letter they sent to him (and their English is pretty good too), was a serious misrepresentation of the Catholic faith.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I know. I was actually bracing myself more for arguments like "Oh, so you believe in creationism and that abortion is wrong!" and all of that. In years past, it has seemed to me that conservatives have always been happy to ignore such anti-capitalism statements, and I imagine that they are only more stirred up now because there is a little doubt about just how 'conservative' this new pope is.