Catholic Bloggers/Writers - Drop The Polite Silence And Speak Out

As most long-time readers of this blog know, I have broached problems with various actions and words that have issued forth from either the Vatican or from Pope Francis himself.  I have found them to be at odds with revealed truth to varying degrees.  Other Catholic bloggers have chosen to remain silent on these matters; until now I have not objected to their silence regarding foibles from the Vatican.  However, I am more and more finding such silence to be indefensible.

The tipping point occurred Friday, with the Pope's bizarre statement that there should be "legitimate redistribution of economic benefit by the state".  I will be blunt.  In shilling for socialism, he is advocating that the entire world adopt a philosophy of economic chaos that has visited upon millions of people abject misery and even death.

My fellow Catholic bloggers, in the face of this statement that is beyond reckless, you can no longer afford to maintain facades of polite silence and undue deference.  Your silence may well be interpreted as tacit approval of this serious error; do you want any resulting spiritual fallout laid to your charge?  Your silence in this matter might be construed as an obligation to accept every utterance from the pope as though it had the weight of infallible dogma.  Do you really want this "redistribution" nonsense to be ascribed as having the same weight as the teaching on the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament?  Realize what a disaster that would be since the previous pontiffs (during the past 130 years) have not spared any breath in denouncing socialism as the spiritual and moral evil that it is.  Sensing the inherent evil of socialism, good Catholics may feel constrained to leave the Church - if we don't raise our voices to make plain that socialism is abhorrent to God and His Church and that the Pope is dead wrong on this most crucial matter.

There are a few others who are speaking out, and for these fellow bloggers I am most grateful.  One of them is A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics.  He put up a post a few days ago as he himself tried to understand why so many are playing "the three monkeys".  Read what he has to say, particularly of ultramontanism.  Related to that, he links to another article from the Blaze that also deserves consideration.  This author mentions the cults of personality that have arisen around all the recent popes, including Francis.  These cults seem comprised of people who do want to be good Catholics but who have lacked (often through no fault of their own) proper education in the most basic of Catholic truth.  He points out that in the Church's 2000-year history, some of the popes have been very unsavory characters, and that we should not be surprised to find that any pontiff is not an angel in disguise.

Fellow bloggers/writers, no good will come from stifling the truth any longer.  Please end your silence now.

Intelligent Words To Address The Pope's Very Unintelligent Remarks On Economic Redistribution

In response to the Pope's very irresponsible suggestion for "redistribution by the state" (see yesterday's post), two online articles have appeared that address fundamental flaws in His Holiness' economic thinking.

The first is by Craige McMillan and this appeared in World Net Daily.  Among other things, he pointed out that the United Nations, whom the Pope was addressing, have been known to skim taxpayer funds for themselves instead of disbursing it to the poor.  That was the crime of Zacchaeus and most of the Roman tax collectors.  They really were crooks.  Zacchaeus was announcing his repentance via a vow to make the reparation dictated by Old Testament law.  He echoed also the reply I left for "Papa Alex": that God requires private, personal charity from each of us.  We cannot designate any government to act as a surrogate on our behalf in the discharge of charitable duties.  It will not satisfy God's laws.  Moreover, when has government ever done anything of that sort effectively?

Father John Zuhlsdorf also weighed in; here's his thorough, line-by-line analysis of the papal address in question.  He asks his own questions.  I'll echo a few of them here.

• Do we all recall that a UN agency recently suggested that the Church was guilty of torture for promulgating its teaching against abortion? (That occurred to me, too, as I was reading it.)  Why is the Pope appealing to the UN for anything?
• The Pope, hailing from Argentina, comes from a country whose economy has been spiraling downward.  Why should we listen to anyone from Argentina regarding economic matters?
• Finally, "How about talking about something other than what has been shown time and again to be a disaster?"

Finally, let me point out that the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen often linked the traitor Judas Iscariot with the "social justice" philosophy, going so far as to call Judas "the patron saint of social justice".  Here is a brief piece he wrote.  

Pope's Economic Ideas - Harmful To Civilization

Approximately 400 years ago, the settlers who landed at Plymouth Rock (Pilgrims) decided at the get-go that they would hold all in common.  All would work for the good of all.  They were led in this venture by their governor, William Bradford.  The result was several years of paltry harvests plus resentments among the pilgrims that they could not benefit from their own labor.  Bradford and the others had the wisdom to know that socialism (for that is what it was) was an inherently flawed system that was doomed to failure.  Bradford divided the land among the settlers and decreed that what the farmers grew was theirs to use.  Lo and behold, both planting and harvests increased dramatically and the famines they had experienced became a thing of the past.  Read here and here for more details and context.

Of course I need not go into the spectacular failures of socialism that have been evidenced throughout modern history, most notably the FORMER Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the other Iron Curtain countries.  They and the free world were at odds with one another during what was known as the Cold War.  They collapsed as a result of the inherent corruption and flaws of socialism.  By and large, their leaders had not the wisdom and humility that William Bradford possessed 400 years ago.  Of course Bradford was a professed Christian and the Iron Curtain leaders were atheists so that accounts for a large part of their mental dispositions.

In light of all this, I and many others look with dismay upon the words of the Holy Father as he addressed United Nations leaders today.  I link now to the complete address that he gave.  Let me remind one and all that the Holy Father, by virtue of his office, will never solemnly proclaim error.  He can speak infallibly on matters of faith and morals: immutable and inherent truths of the Church.  He does not possess those same guarantees when it comes to matters of prudential judgment.  A discussion on what economic policies to pursue falls into this area in which good Catholics can respectfully disagree with the Pope simply because in these matters the Holy Father may well be in error from a prudential perspective.

Yes.  With respect to the Holy Father's economic ideas, I beg to differ.  In his address he appeals to a "legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state".  With all due respect to His Holiness, this notion is not only incorrect, but downright dangerous to all who would be impacted by its implementation.  All those already impacted by this concept have already experienced the inherent tyranny of a state so empowered.

Let's examine that phrase that he coined: "legitimate redistribution".  Why does he betray a need to qualify the word "redistribution" with "legitimate"?  Either it's understood to be legitimate or it isn't legitimate.  The very attempt to sanitize this "redistribution" with the word "legitimate" makes plain that he is trying his darnedest to get us to accept a very illegitimate redistribution.

Now for the places cursed with this "legitimate redistribution", we must ask "how does the state obtain these economic benefits to redistribute"?  Isn't it odd how progressive Catholics (and it appears the Holy Father is

in that number) don't like to address that question?  Not really - for they realize that this "obtaining" involved inherently sinful actions.  So let's spell it out in "black and white", shall we?  For all this "legitimate redistribution" to occur, the state would have to be empowered to confiscate the "economic benefits" from those who earned them by their own hard work and risk-taking of investment.  Those earners are treated as so many cash cows to be plundered at will by the state, with the approval - if not assistance - by progressive Catholics.  But there's this minor matter of the Seventh Commandment - Thou Shalt Not Steal.  That commandment binds upon the Church and State as much as it binds on individuals.  The fact that these progressives - from the highest Church office on down - are silent on this aspect of "redistribution" speaks volumes about both their guilty consciences and their refusal to repent of their socialistic proclivities.  What the Holy Father is also saying here is "from each according to his ability to each according to his need".  Ladies and gentlemen, I just quoted Karl Marx.

Pope Francis might do well to examine the words of his predecessors, going all the way back to Pius IX.  They saw clearly the dangers of socialism and a bloated, arrogant state.  Yes the state that is empowered to give us things is the state that is empowered to take them away.  If more and more power is ascribed to the state - and by extension to the oligarchy running it - it will become more and more corrupt and tyrannical.  Don't we see that today with Obamacare breathing down our necks?

Remembering that "redistribution" can hardly be called a dogma of faith, I have no bones opining that the desire for this "redistribution" is at best dangerously simplistic and naive if not downright moronic and deadly.  The Holy Father can and should speak about matters of immutable dogma and inherent morality.  Most people understand that the most common predictor of poverty for an individual is whether or not they come from an intact family where biological father and biological mother remain married to each other and who observe chastity in keeping with their married state.  So many evils militate against the family and against life (the Holy Father did make mention of the culture of death): contraception, abortion, acceptance of homosexuality and other perversions, etc.  Would not the Church and the world be better off if the Roman Catholic clergy would concentrate on faith and morals and stop meddling in matters where she has no practical expertise?  Yes.