{"id":186655,"date":"2013-11-26T20:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T01:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/11\/26\/i-guess-that-you-get-il-papa-buono-about-once-every-50-years\/"},"modified":"2013-11-26T20:59:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T01:59:00","slug":"i-guess-that-you-get-il-papa-buono-about-once-every-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/11\/26\/i-guess-that-you-get-il-papa-buono-about-once-every-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"I Guess that You Get il Papa Buono About Once Every 50 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis just went rhetorically postal on Anglo-Saxon hyper capitalism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a wide-ranging and decidedly populist teaching that revealed how he plans to reshape the Catholic Church.<\/span>

<\/span>In his most authoritative writings as pontiff, Francis decried an \u201cidolatry of money\u201d in secular culture and warned that it would lead to \u201ca new tyranny.\u201d But he reserved a large part of his critique for what he sees as an excessively top-down Catholic Church hierarchy, calling for more local governance and greater inclusiveness \u2014 including \u201cbroader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>On Tuesday, he showed a willingness to use tough language in attacking what he views as the excesses of capitalism. Using a phrase with special resonance in the United States, he strongly criticized an economic theory \u2014 often affiliated with conservatives \u2014 that discourages taxation and regulation.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cSome people continue to defend 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,\u201d Francis wrote in the papal statement. \u201cThis opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra\u00adlized workings of the prevailing economic system.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cMeanwhile,\u201d he added, \u201cthe excluded are still waiting.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>Although Francis has previously raised concerns about the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor, the direct reference to \u201ctrickle-down\u201d economics in the English translation of his statement is striking.<\/span>

<\/span>The phrase has often been used derisively to describe a popular version of conservative economic philosophy that argues that allowing the wealthy to run their businesses unencumbered by regulation or taxation bears economic benefits that lead to more jobs and income for the rest of society. Liberals and Democratic officials have rejected the theory, saying it is contradicted by economic evidence.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Francis\u2019s language on the economy has been far more accessible than that of Benedict, a theologian who wrote primarily in thick books hard to untangle for the regular lay\u00adperson. And Pope John Paul II\u2019s warnings on economic inequality were swallowed at times by his war on Communism, a far more dangerous problem in the church\u2019s eyes because of its anti-religious bent.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Paul II\u2019s “war on Communism” was a reactionary war against the idea that the church was to be a countervailing force against the excesses of capitalism.<\/p>\n

It’s nice to see that some<\/b> of the less antediluvian members of the Catholic clergy managed to avoid JP II’s purges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis just went rhetorically postal on Anglo-Saxon hyper capitalism: Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a wide-ranging and decidedly populist teaching that revealed how he plans to reshape the Catholic Church.In his most authoritative writings as pontiff, Francis decried an \u201cidolatry of money\u201d in secular culture and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[973,1003,978,1021],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-philosophy","category-politics","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}