Pope Francis Expresses Economic Views Of Karl Polanyi
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- Rush Limbaugh says Pope Francis sounds Marxist for his statements on poverty
- Pope decries the idolatry of money, extreme materialism and disregard for poor
- Limbaugh says remarks "would have been unthinkable for a pope" to say few years ago
- Robert Ellsberg: But concern for the poor above all is not Marxist, it's the core of Catholicism
Editor's
note: Robert
Ellsberg is the publisher of Orbis Books and the author of several
books, including "All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints,
Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time." He is the son of Daniel
Ellsberg.
(CNN) --
Radio personality Rush Limbaugh declared himself bewildered by recent
papal statements "about the utter evils of capitalism." In
his broadcast, titled "It's
Sad How Wrong Pope Francis Is (Unless It's a Deliberate
Mistranslation by Leftists),"
Limbaugh said the remarks add up to "just pure Marxism coming
out of the mouth of the Pope." This would indeed be remarkable,
if true. Is it?
Limbaugh
is referring to the new apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii
Gaudium,"
or "The Joy of the Gospel," in which Pope Francis lays out
his vision for the church's proclamation of the gospel.
For
Catholics, enthusiastic about the Pope's unguarded style, the
document offers a refreshing departure from the traditional voice:
"There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without
Easter," the Pope laments. "I want to remind priests that
the confessional must not be a torture chamber." He decries a
kind of "spiritual worldliness" that "hides behind the
appearance of piety," warns against "sourpusses" who
would substitute love of Jesus Christ with a love of the church, and
rejects a defeatist "tomb psychology" that would transform
Christians into "mummies in a museum."
Robert
Ellsberg
And
yet certainly the press has focused on those several pages -- in a
document of 50,000 words -- that offer a vivid critique of the global
economic system, what Pope Francis terms "an economy of
exclusion and inequality." Here, Limbaugh charges, "The
Pope has now gone beyond Catholicism, and this is pure political."
More "saddened" than outraged, Limbaugh states that "it
is very clear (the Pope) doesn't know what he's talking about when it
comes to capitalism and socialism, and so forth."
Actually,
the words "capitalism" and "socialism" do not
appear in the document. But it is not difficult to discern the Pope's
meaning: "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a
clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we
also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and
inequality. Such an economy kills."
As
the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, as one who experienced
the financial meltdown of the Argentine economy, as a bishop who
encouraged his priests to work in the slums, Pope Francis knows the
global economy from the perspective of those at the bottom. Decrying
the idolatry of money, he sets himself firmly against a "deified
marketplace" in which the masses of human beings become
powerless spectators, if not disposable "leftovers."
Limbaugh,
who concedes that he is not Catholic, though he says he's "been
tempted a number of times to delve into it," nevertheless "knows
enough to know that this would have been unthinkable for a pope to
believe or say just a few years ago."
But
little distinguishes Pope Francis from the prophetic utterances of
his predecessors. What he is offering is not "Marxism," as
Limbaugh says, but bedrock Catholic social teaching that goes back
more than a century. Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI were
explicit in their warnings against liberal capitalism and the
dictatorship of the marketplace, producing encyclicals which, for
their emphasis on social justice and the "option for the poor,"
would surely qualify for Rush Limbaugh as the very elixir of
"Marxism."
Yet
Pope Francis may have touched a particular nerve. In the most often
cited paragraph of his document, he notes, "Some 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.
"This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting."
Here,
you might say he is getting personal, stepping beyond familiar pleas
for the poor to confront a central article of faith among the elite
beneficiaries of our economy: The notion that whatever benefits the
wealthiest -- tax cuts or financial deregulation -- will inevitably
benefit those at the bottom.
Apart
from whether this is confirmed by the facts, Pope Francis attacks the
corrosive effects of such an ideology on our capacity for compassion
and concern for others.
"The
culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market
offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime, all those lives
stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to
move us." Limbaugh finds this particular statement so
bewildering that he repeats it three times.
Business
commentators may
rise to the defense of the marketplace. But Pope Francis is not
primarily interested in a debate about "wealth creation."
He stands in a tradition that goes back to the prophets of Israel,
whose moral litmus test was the welfare of society's least and most
vulnerable members.
Pope
Francis has taken it upon himself to speak for those who have no
voice, to arouse the conscience of Christians, and to contribute to a
culture of solidarity. He longs, he says, for a "Church which is
poor and for the poor." Perhaps what distinguishes him from his
predecessors is simply that he has identified this as a central
focus, and that he evidently intends to hold the church accountable
to this mission.
Of
course no one is troubled by a pope who embraces the sick and loves
the poor. But when he dares to reflect on the moral and structural
causes of poverty, that is a different matter.
As
Dom Helder Camara, another prophetic archbishop from Latin America,
famously observed, "When I give food to the poor they call me a
saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."
Some things never change.
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