“The world of finance, while necessary, no longer represents an instrument that favours our well-being or the life of mankind, instead it has become an oppressive power, that almost demands our adoration, mammon, the false divinity that truly dominates the world.”
Who said that? A socialist? A number of the Occupy Movement? An economic advisor to President Obama?
None of the above.
The words are those of Pope Benedict XVI, in an address given to the seminarians at Rome’s major seminary on February 15. And those words do not stand alone but are rather the latest in a series of strong statements over the last century by the Popes in support of social and economic justice, which is the right of every human being to lead a decent and humane life, and like Jesus to take the side of the poor instead of the powerful. This is unquestionable and obvious in the 4 Gospels.
None of the above.
The words are those of Pope Benedict XVI, in an address given to the seminarians at Rome’s major seminary on February 15. And those words do not stand alone but are rather the latest in a series of strong statements over the last century by the Popes in support of social and economic justice, which is the right of every human being to lead a decent and humane life, and like Jesus to take the side of the poor instead of the powerful. This is unquestionable and obvious in the 4 Gospels.
It approaches dishonesty when Catholic Bishops, neo-conservative Catholics, and the ordinary press almost never quote the Popes when they say anything critical of capitalism or the Western economic system. Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24). This is one of the few and the clearest dualistic statements that Jesus ever makes, yet many Christians today seem to have trodden the Gospel beneath the unquestionable god of “the market economy”, which seems to have rights and an absolute truth of its own. Corporations are now equivalent to persons in the USA, and the bishops have nothing to say about this, while creating pseudo problems over the issue of contraception. It defies honest analysis if you have been trained in Catholic systematic theology.
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