Pope Veritaspac I
. . . in the climate science of Pope Francis, his economic understanding as presented, his selectivity regarding Biblical precepts, even his consistency with prior papal pronouncements . . . and certainly not his fostering of one-world government which is the implication of his support for the adoption of the UN’s proposed “Sustainable Development Goals” (see yesterday’s post). As to the later we are as “protestant” as can be. His denial of being of the left strains even “jesuitical” reasoning.
During the Pope’s charter flight from Cuba to Washington yesterday he spoke with reporters;. From the Reuter’s report by Scott Malone and Philip Pullell :
Pope starts U.S. trip with tone of conciliation
The pontiff has often taken aim at capitalism, but on the plane bringing him from Cuba he said it would be wrong to presume that his concerns about economic injustice make him a leftist.
“Maybe an explanation was given that led to the impression that I am a bit to the left but it would be an error of explanation,” Francis told reporters.
The first Latin American pope has electrified liberal-leaning U.S. Catholics, Democrats and many non-Catholics with a shift in emphasis toward concern for the poor and immigrants and his appeals for action against climate change. But his criticism of unbridled capitalism has unsettled U.S. conservatives.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Francis said his teachings on economic fairness and climate change are “all in the social doctrine of the Church.”
“It is I who follow the Church,” he said.
Indeed? May we suggest some squaring is long overdo. Consider these excerpts from previous papal encyclicals. A more complete presentation and commentary is available in our Papal Pages All bolding is our emphasis.
Rerum Novarum The 1891 encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, On Capital and Labor
22. Regarding the sharing of material possessions [14] It is duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity — a duty not enforced by human law.
Quadragesimo Anno, On Reconstruction of the Social Order, is the encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI on the fortieth anniversary of the encyclical by Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum. That a person cannot properly read the latter without having read the earlier should be pretty obvious just from the name (Fortieth Year) but more thoroughly from the number of references.
47. In order to place definite limits on the controversies that have arisen over ownership and its inherent duties there must be first laid down as foundation a principle established by Leo XIII: The right of property is distinct from its use. [30] That justice called commutative commands sacred respect for the division of possessions and forbids invasion of others’ rights through the exceeding of the limits of one’s own property; but the duty of owners to use their property only in a right way does not come under this type of justice, but under other virtues, obligations of which “cannot be enforced by legal action.” [31] Therefore, they are in error who assert that ownership and its right use are limited by the same boundaries; and it is much farther still from the truth to hold that a right to property is destroyed or lost by reason of abuse or non-use.
55. And therefore, to the harassed workers there have come “intellectuals,” as they are called, setting up in opposition to a fictitious law the equally fictitious moral principle that all products and profits, save only enough to repair and renew capital, belong by very right to the workers. This error, much more specious than that of certain of the Socialists who hold that whatever serves to produce goods ought to be transferred to the State, or, as they say “socialized,” is consequently all the more dangerous and the more apt to deceive the unwary. It is an alluring poison which many have eagerly drunk whom open Socialism had not been able to deceive.
76. What We have thus far stated regarding an equitable distribution of property and regarding just wages concerns individual persons and only indirectly touches social order, to the restoration of which according to the principles of sound philosophy and to its perfection according to the sublime precepts of the law of the Gospel, Our Predecessor, Leo XIII, devoted all his thought and care.
116. Yet let no one think that all the socialist groups or factions that are not communist have, without exception, recovered their senses to this extent either in fact or in name. For the most part they do not reject the class struggle or the abolition of ownership, but only in some degree modify them. Now if these false principles are modified and to some extent erased from the program, the question arises, or rather is raised without warrant by some, whether the principles of Christian truth cannot perhaps be also modified to some degree and be tempered so as to meet Socialism half-way and, as it were, by a middle course, come to agreement with it. There are some allured by the foolish hope that socialists in this way will be drawn to us. A vain hope! Those who want to be apostles among socialists ought to profess Christian truth whole and entire, openly and sincerely, and not connive at error in any way. If they truly wish to be heralds of the Gospel, let them above all strive to show to socialists that socialist claims, so far as they are just, are far more strongly supported by the principles of Christian faith and much more effectively promoted through the power of Christian charity.
120. If Socialism, like all errors, contains some truth (which, moreover, the Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), it is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.
Pope Francis’ claim that he is being consistent with Catholic teaching regarding economic systems is the argument between personal responsibility, charity and the like — and his affinity for government confiscation and trickle down redistribution. Rather than appreciate the processes to make a bigger economic pie that everyone benefits from (and what it means to be poor in America as compared to the third world where there is no example of a capitalistic economy) Pope Francis can’t get past thinly slicing the pie with disregard for the devastating impact on capital formation necessary to make the pie bigger. His scare mongering regarding the environment is ignorant and unbecoming and his call for support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will reek havoc on progress in the economic well-being of the poor worldwide.
R Mall
