CAPITALISM. The Pope is an obviously intelligent and devout person. With his knowledge of the Catholic Church and it's history, it is surprising that he is so naive regarding real world economics and it is especially discouraging hat he does not advise the church how to better apply it's assets to help the poor. These two factors are areas that recent Popes appear to avoid.
Capitalism requires "competition" and in my view "competition" is a stimulant to progress. I believe the impulse is part of the human character at birth, and stops only at death. The current Pope would rather this was not true. He has been going around the world preaching the evils of Capitalism vs the benefits of Progressive Socialism. He has made a terrible mistake. He needs to go back to school on these subjects. Progressive Socialism, and it's close relative, Communism, have repeatedly failed when attempted. They have always failed and certainly are faulty political systems. They lack the element of competition. The Pope is wrong to use the power of his office to promote them.
The fatal flaw in liberalism, progressivism, socialism and communism is the destruction of "competition". Countries living under one of these systems tend to eventually collapse. At this time in history surely some form of socially responsible democratic capitalism would yield a more dynamic society. This, of course, seems to be best expressed simply as "capitalism".
Capitalism requires "competition" and in my view "competition" is a stimulant to progress. I believe the impulse is part of the human character at birth, and stops only at death. The current Pope would rather this was not true. He has been going around the world preaching the evils of Capitalism vs the benefits of Progressive Socialism. He has made a terrible mistake. He needs to go back to school on these subjects. Progressive Socialism, and it's close relative, Communism, have repeatedly failed when attempted. They have always failed and certainly are faulty political systems. They lack the element of competition. The Pope is wrong to use the power of his office to promote them.
The fatal flaw in liberalism, progressivism, socialism and communism is the destruction of "competition". Countries living under one of these systems tend to eventually collapse. At this time in history surely some form of socially responsible democratic capitalism would yield a more dynamic society. This, of course, seems to be best expressed simply as "capitalism".
The Catholic Church, can be described as a kingdom with a successive dictator (the Pope) as the leader. In recent centuries the Church has done some marvelous work benefiting it's poor parishioners as well as the poor of other (or no) religion. It's practical help has been to comfort with education in faith. Perhaps it is unkind to observe that the church has become increasingly wealthy in terms of real estate, other assets and riches, but slow to give minimal alms or other needed assistance.The Vatican appears to refute the current Popes' economic preferences. His current dislike of capitalistic system of government is unjustified. His praise of socialistic systems will potentially do more harm than good.
IMMIGRATION. The Pope also has recently become an advocate of uncontrolled immigration. This is the real world and for it to function there has to be some control - or the rush from impoverished areas to more wealthy ones will bankrupt those that "have" and cause chaos among those that don't.
This is rather elementary economics and the Pope should be more aware of the damage he is promoting. This last Thursday the Pope injected himself into the American political fray by saying "those who seek to build walls instead of bridges are not Christian". That he would make such an outrageous statement in the context of the proposed immigration wall between Mexico and the United States brings disgrace to Catholics everywhere.
Pope Francis actually went on to say, regarding the American Presidential candidate Donald Trump, "I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said that if elected, he would build a wall on the Mexican/American border". Again, this is another poorly chosen comment - since Mr. Trump and his family have been (not very active) Presbyterians for decades. The Pope has no authority to say that Mr. Trump is or isn't a Christian. Also, the Pope apparently believes it his duty to become involved in complicated economic and political controversies. If so, he could find better advisors, first.
dw
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