This morning, Pope Francis met with U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon and other United Nations officials. He sounded some familiar themes of
his past 14 months as pontiff. He admonished our “throwaway culture,” he
talked about the need for “solidarity” with the suffering, and the need to
serve the poor. In his talks with Catholics and all people of good will, he
injects the Beatitudes even into more secular context. The Beatitudes are who
he is, why Catholics are who we are, and they just so happen to make the world
more tender and compassionate.
So, of course, the first Associated Press story that hits the wires makes
no mention of anything Pope Francis had to say about the “culture of
death,” but runs the headline “Pope urges ‘legitimate redistribution’ of
wealth by the state to poor in spirit of generosity.”
I get it, we run with what we’re comfortable with. So now the Left
can be content to believe that the pope is not challenging, but endorsing, say,
a midterm political platform. Anyone, however, who listens to this pope in
context and is not challenged simply isn’t listening. As a spiritual and
practical matter, I’m challenged by him daily — and I am far from alone. That’s
what a good priest does! He’s a doctor of souls and as a world
leader unpacks some of the propositions (and mandates, for those who call
ourselves Christians) of the Gospel with some urgency.
For anyone curious about what the pope actually said, here’s the meat of the translation up on News.va, the place to go if you’re
looking for context to wild headlines about Pope Francis:
An essential principle of management is the refusal to be
satisfied with current results and to press forward, in the conviction that
those gains are only consolidated by working to achieve even more. In the case
of global political and economic organization, much more needs to be achieved,
since an important part of humanity does not share in the benefits of progress
and is in fact relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Future
Sustainable Development Goals must therefore be formulated and carried out with
generosity and courage, so that they can have a real impact on the structural
causes of poverty and hunger, attain more substantial results in protecting the
environment, ensure dignified and productive labor for all, and provide
appropriate protection for the family, which is an essential element in
sustainable human and social development. Specifically, this involves
challenging all forms of injustice and resisting the “economy of exclusion”,
the “throwaway culture” and the “culture of death” which nowadays sadly risk
becoming passively accepted.
With this in mind, I would like to remind you, as
representatives of the chief agencies of global cooperation, of an incident
which took place two thousand years ago and is recounted in the Gospel of Saint
Luke (19:1-10). It is the encounter between Jesus Christ and the rich tax
collector Zacchaeus, as a result of which Zacchaeus made a radical decision of
sharing and justice, because his conscience had been awakened by the gaze of
Jesus. This same spirit should be at the beginning and end of all political and
economic activity. The gaze, often silent, of that part of the human family
which is cast off, left behind, ought to awaken the conscience of political and
economic agents and lead them to generous and courageous decisions with
immediate results, like the decision of Zacchaeus. Does this spirit of
solidarity and sharing guide all our thoughts and actions?
Today, in concrete terms, an awareness of the dignity of each of
our brothers and sisters whose life is sacred and inviolable from conception to
natural death must lead us to share with complete freedom the goods which God’s
providence has placed in our hands, material goods but also intellectual and
spiritual ones, and to give back generously and lavishly whatever we may have
earlier unjustly refused to others.
The account of Jesus and Zacchaeus teaches us that above and
beyond economic and social systems and theories, there will always be a need to
promote generous, effective and practical openness to the needs of others.
Jesus does not ask Zacchaeus to change jobs nor does he condemn his financial
activity; he simply inspires him to put everything, freely yet immediately and
indisputably, at the service of others. Consequently, I do not hesitate to
state, as did my predecessors (cf. JOHN PAUL II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,
42-43; Centesimus Annus, 43; BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 6; 24-40), that
equitable economic and social progress can only be attained by joining
scientific and technical abilities with an unfailing commitment to solidarity
accompanied by a generous and disinterested spirit of gratuitousness at every
level. A contribution to this equitable development will also be made both by
international activity aimed at the integral human development of all the
world’s peoples and by the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by
the State, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and
civil society.
Consequently, while encouraging you in your continuing efforts
to coordinate the activity of the international agencies, which represents a
service to all humanity, I urge you to work together in promoting a true,
worldwide ethical mobilization which, beyond all differences of religious or
political convictions, will spread and put into practice a shared ideal of
fraternity and solidarity, especially with regard to the poorest and those most
excluded.
During a week that included a U.N. committee suggesting the Holy
See is guilty of torture –
a veiled attempt to stifle the voice of the premier enemy of a secularism with
an increasingly intolerant, authoritarian streak, even in the United States —
the story this morning is one of a rebuke of secularism and stubborn
ideological selfishness. Not for the first time, Pope Francis seeks to renew
man’s commitment to his brother. Not as a political platform or ideological
crutch, but as the reality of our lives together here. Let that inform our
politics: A commitment to human dignity, to help men and women
flourish; to keep challenging ourselves, and to only want what works to
help our brothers and sisters flourish.
Source:http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/377617/totally-missing-pope-francis-story-yet-again-kathryn-jean-lopez
Comments
Pope Francis is not endorsing the global
redistribution of wealth espoused by Obama, the U.N. and the global Marxists. I
interpret his use of the word “State” to be government at all levels. The plight of the global poor would be
immeasurably improved if their governments recognized their natural right to
property, water, land, minerals, and the means of feeding themselves. Most countries do not allow individuals to buy
and own their own land, water and mineral rights. These governments should enact laws that
grant individuals the right to own land, water and mineral rights. These individuals should be allowed to own
their own farms and to grow their own food.
Nothing will improve until this is done and nothing will improve in the
U.S. until we insist on government allowing uncorrupted free enterprise for all
citizens.
Pope Francis further calls for the golden
rule to apply to all individuals as well.
We Americans found prosperity by practicing “charity begins at
home”. We first provide for our families
and those who cross our path.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader,
ntlconsulting.blogspot.com
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