From: [email protected]
To:
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
POPE FRANCIS ISS NOT LIBERAL, BUT RADICAL (= GROUNDED BY CHRISTIAN ROOTS) July
21, 2015 Pope Francis Is Making Christianity Radical Again The pope is calling
out a status quo that global elites benefit from at the expense of the poor.
by John Gehring
POPE FRANCIS IS MAKING CHRISTIANITY RADICAL AGAIN 9/8/2015
THE POPE IS CALLING OUT A STATUS QUO THAT ELITES BENEFIT FROM AT THE EXPENSE OF
THE POOR
During his recent whirlwind trip to three of the poorest countries in South
America, Pope Francis was a man on fire. He played the role of thunderous Old
Testament prophet, community organizer, and even a revolutionary rallying the
downtrodden to stand up to injustice. In a speech in Bolivia widely viewed as
one of the most important and far-reaching of his papacy, the pope brought an
urgent message that should make global elites nervous.
The first pope from Latin America will visit the United States in three months
and become the first pontiff to address Congress. If his South American tour is
any indication, the powers that be here in the world’s financial, media, and
military epicenter should buckle up.
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural
change,” Francis told representatives from indigenous communities, workers, and
activists fighting for social reforms. The pope highlighted what he called “the
three Ls” (labor, lodging, and land) as central to human dignity. He warned
time was “running out” to address ecological destruction and climate change. He
railed against a “new colonialism” that includes fiscal austerity measures and
“certain free trade agreements.” The profit-first (greed ALSO
INCLUDED)mentality of global capitalism, Francis argues, is morally
indefensible.
“Let us say ‘no’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules
rather than serves,” the pope said in what has now become a defining theme of
his papacy. “That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys
Mother Earth.”
A pope who is radical, not liberalIt’s tempting to squeeze this maverick pope
into secular political categories. Some media coverage has reflected this
instinct by describing the pope as a leftist. In many ways, this is
understandable. The pope’s searing critique of the socioeconomic status quo —
what he calls “an idolatrous system which excludes, debases, and kills” — is
left of the Democratic party. Hillary Clinton might agonize over how far to go
in challenging the titans on Wall Street, but the pope has, well let’s just
say, fewer political calculations to consider.
The pope also uses language that would be familiar to Occupy Wall Street
activists, who in 2011 made Zuccotti Park a magnet for those challenging the
presumptions of unbridled market fundamentalism, or leaders who mobilized
massive protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization in 1999.
In fact, while some in the liberal establishment turned up a collective nose at
Occupy, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who leads the Vatican’s justice and
peace council and wrote the first draft of the pope’s recent encyclical, said
at the time that the “basic sentiment” behind Occupy Wall Street aligned with
traditional principles of Catholic social teaching on the economy.
While Pope Francis’ populist rhetoric warms the hearts of many liberals —
including those who wish the church would pipe down on issues of sexuality and
marriage — it’s a mistake to pigeonhole him with conventional secular terms.
His source of inspiration is the radical message at the heart of the Gospels.
In the shadow of the Roman Empire, Jesus put the poor and those on the
peripheries at the center of his ministry.
He rattled the righteous defenders of the religious law, scandalized many, and
fulfilled the message of the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
the oppressed free . . . ”
In Bolivia, Pope Francis specifically anchored his denunciation of a corporate
globalization that has lifted some boats but has done little for those
languishing in the villas miseries of Buenos Aires and the favelas of Rio in
this context. “This system runs counter to the plan of Jesus,” the pope said
bluntly. “Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human
labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the
responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment.”
In Ecuador, the pope made it plain: “Our faith is always revolutionary.”
A pope who upholds Catholic social teachingIf you have a problem with what Pope
Francis is saying, your real problem is with the Hebrew prophets, Jesus of
Nazareth, and a century of Catholic social teaching about the common good.
Some conservatives determined to paint Pope Francis as naïve and marginalize
him as a Marxist have clear political motivations. “This pope grew up in a
third world country that, frankly, is an example of what happens when you don’t
have capitalism and democracy,” scoffed former ambassador Otto Reich, the
assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs in the George W.
Bush administration.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic who has mistakenly argued his budget proposals are
consonant with his faith’s teachings, also strikes a condescending tone. “The
guy is from Argentina,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in 2013. “They
have crony capitalism in Argentina. They don’t have a true free enterprise
system.” Leaving aside the stunning arrogance and myopia in those statements —
Wall Street greed and criminal behavior get a free pass — these critiques are
part of a larger effort to delegitimize the pope when it comes to economic
justice.
Ryan and Co. conveniently ignore the fact that the Catechism of the Catholic
Church refers to “sinful inequalities” that are “in open contradiction to the
Gospel.” The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published by the
Vatican under Pope John Paul II, states that “wealth exists to be shared” and
that “evil is seen in the immoderate attachment to riches and the desire to
hoard.”
This doesn’t make Pope Francis or the Catholic Church anti-market or
anti-capitalist. Catholic teaching is clear that the economy should exist to
serve human beings, not the other way around. Ever since Pope Leo XIII issued
the church’s first social encyclical in 1891, at a time when the savage
inequalities of the Industrial Revolution left workers with little protection
against the whims of rapacious owners, the church has advocated for living
wages, the need for unions, and prudent oversight of markets to ensure human
dignity is not sacrificed on what Pope Francis has called “the altar of money.”
Pope John Paul II spoke about the “priority of labor over capital.” Pope
Benedict XVI challenged the “scandal of glaring inequalities.” Francis is
building on themes addressed by his predecessors, while clearly putting more
institutional muscle behind inequality and social exclusion.
It’s true that Pope Francis is shaped by his experiences in Argentina, and his
unique vision as the first non-European pontiff in over a millennium. This is
an asset. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
earned a reputation for being the “Bishop of the Slums” for the considerable
time he spent in the toughest sectors of town. During the 2002 Argentine debt
crisis, along with other Catholic bishops, Bergoglio spoke out against fiscal
austerity measures and pointed to “social exclusion, a growing gap between rich
and poor, and . . . the negative consequences of globalization and the tyranny
of markets.”
A pope who brings a perspective from the peripheries and aligns with the
powerless knows his harshest critics are waiting for him in the United States.
Expect the backlash to Pope Francis’ urgent pleas for action on climate change
and inequality to heat up in the lead up to his visit. The most influential
moral leader in the world today is calling out a status quo that political and
financial elites benefit from at the expense of the poor. Those who prefer
religion safe and sanitized — or relegated to issues of sexual morality — are
on the defensive for good reason.
“Artists are here to disturb the peace,” the American writer James Baldwin once
wrote. The same might apply to a pope bringing radical Christianity back to
center stage.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
Written byJohn Gehring
