The following comes from a May 12 The Hill article by Timothy Cama:
Pope Francis’ closest adviser castigated conservative climate change skeptics in the United States Tuesday, blaming capitalism for their views.
Speaking with journalists, Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga criticized certain “movements” in the United States that have preemptively come out in opposition to Francis’s planned encyclical on climate change.
“The ideology surrounding environmental issues is too tied to a capitalism that doesn’t want to stop ruining the environment because they don’t want to give up their profits,” Rodríguez said, according to the Boston Globe‘s Crux blog.
He said many individuals both inside and outside the Catholic Church are awaiting Francis’s encyclical “with hope,” and especially watching how it might impact the United Nations’s December meeting that seeks to reach an agreement on an international climate change pact.
That is Francis’s top stated goal for the encyclical, to encourage Catholics to fight climate change and influence the U.N.’s process.
But Rodríguez singled out the United States as the source of premature criticism, the Globe reported.
“I have already heard criticism over the encyclical,” Rodríguez said of the United States, adding that it is “absurd” to be so negative about an encyclical that no one in the public has seen.
Cardinal Oscar and Pope Francis should “stick to their knitting.”
They should speak of matters of faith – only. Outside that, their opinions are not necessarily to be taken seriously. People who have a job for life have no right to lecture me about making a living.
I don’t even want them to speak on matters of the Faith. They need to go on a permanent sabbatical.
I am all for capitalist, except for capitalists such as Larry Flint and Hugh Hefner — you know the porn kings.
Fools.
Capitalism and individual economic determinism are the very best things that ever happened to people and government. Europe is stunted, and will remain so, by refusing to recognize the obvious: people crave personal and economic freedoms, and do so much better with them, than when they are oppressed.
The Vatican is populated by Marxists and socialists. Why? Because the present Latin American power people have never liked freedom of any kind. Just look at Maradiaga’s Honduras: overrun by gangs and corruption, a country that does not work because it has no rule of law, no freedom to contract, no right to life, nothing except violence and growing poverty.
Liberation Theology, as many have noted, is not “theology” at all. Whether or not started by the KGB, Lib-Theology serves to elevate non-observance of rules and to revolt whenever there is “inequality’ or “oppression”. Really cute, too, that Francis does not genuflect at the consecration; but his spittle comes out flying whenever he talks about “corporations” and their supposed power to oppress. Just tell that to Southern Copper Company and the government of Peru, as they try to start up the Tia Maria Copper facility there. So many world-wide labor and socialists oppose this project in the name of the “environment”. So much for companies having their way. (Very much like the City of Baltimore, where professional protesters vastly outnumbered the real thing, and their agenda clearly went beyond the City and toward a federalization of local police departments.)
Catholic Readers: Pay Attention (Achtung, to the Germans.)
Check out a recent “Moonbattery” here: https://moonbattery.com/?p=58480. Great blog site.
Perhaps C. Maradiaga will one day be Pope — that is what is being said. He is completely off his rocker, and likely not much of a Catholic. Read the full article and fear his influence on our stumbling Pontiff (who we should pray for).
Too bad the Maradiaga brigade does not see salvation as worth mentioning, or sin, or anything else. They are all basically politicians. And, perhaps, that is why God chose Francis as Pope; to identify the cancer of “theologians” and Church “leaders” like Maradiaga, and have each Catholic make a choice to follow them, or to fight them. Could be messy. Many souls on the line.
Didn’t our Blessed Mother tell the shepherd children at Fatima that Hell was real and that many, many souls were lost there? Morons like the many cardinals that are soft on homosexual sex, all sexual license, state murder in Cuba and Latin America, and the importance of the individual, hate to hear that truth. But, these people will make others leave the institutional church to find where the Faith is truly practiced. Time to get ready.
St Christopher, Fatima (New Church feast day May 13th) also occurs to me, as neo-Socialists like Maradiaga try to escape their failed work to save souls and instead which to construct a New Jerusalem on earth.
As we come up on the first centenary of Fatima, there are a number of historic anomalies: The June 13th, 1917 appearance with the 3 children (the 2nd of the 5 appearances: of course the first was May 13th, 1917) was not long after Tsar Nicholas had been deposed (Mar., 1917),and immediately after Lenin was secretly transported by German agents into Russia (April 16, 1917). The final Marian appearance, the “exclamation point”, the Miracle of the Sun, occurred Oct. 13th, 1917, 12 days before the successful Bolshevik October Revolution, another plan for a Perfect Workers’ Paradise.
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The other remarkable series of dates and times appearing to show a projection of events of a universal Catholic “future times” significance into modern history is my paraphrase of an address on Fatima given by Pius XII: ” In 1517, Martin Luther pounded his 95 theses on the church at Wittenberg: Luther led a revolution that rejected the Church, but still believed in God and Jesus Christ. The next revolution was 200 years later: in 1717, the community of Freemasons announced their presence in London: The Masons revealed a New World Order in which they rejected both Christ and the Church but they believed in God. Finally culminating at the time of Fatima, in 1917, Lenin achieved the October Revolution.
It was this last revolution, that Our Lady personally sought to intervene in human history with the permission of her Son, to make one last appeal to spare the human race.
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98 years later, and now with tens of millions slaughtered by Communism, various forms of state Socialism, and Maoism (“Russia will spread its errors to the whole world…”) , we have a clearer vision of her effort to spare us from destruction, both spiritual and natura, from godless social and political structures.
. We can’t look to the spiritual leaders like Maradiaga, at least: they have sold out to a neo-Utopianism which will undoubtedly end up being a great slave state, like all the others. But Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart will triumph, and therein is the answer.
Our Lady of Medgugorje has said that Satan’s plan is to destroy not just mankind, but the entire planet.
Our Lady of Medgugorje is not a recognized apparition and frankly I think it’s alot of bunk.
St. C, your comment “Capitalism and individual economic determinism are the very best things that ever happened to people and government” is very true. No other system of economics has proven to be more effective. Like everything else, its strength can also be its weakness. There is a very thin line between unfettered capitalism and one that is more centered on outcomes favorable to the country’s citizens. Socialism has never worked effectively over the long haul; we can stipulate that. Whatever the economic system a country has, it should be held accountable for producing a reasonable lifestyle of its citizens. In the last twenty years we have seen the destruction of the middle class in the U.S., the increase in poverty levels, and a government essentially bought by the top one percent. About twenty-five hundred families own about ninety percent of the wealth of the country. Some would call for excessive controls on the wealth producing segment of society which would be a mistake. Some additional controls (don’t you hate that word), however, seem to be in order. Large corporations that set up dummy corporations in other countries so they don’t have to pay taxes in the U.S. are doing nothing illegal, but the law should be changed. Companies that send all of their manufacturing to other countries to save a few million dollars should be held accountable for the jobs they eliminated in this country.
It was this last revolution, that Our Lady personally sought to intervene in human history with the permission of her Son, to make one last appeal to spare the human race.
…
98 years later, and now with tens of millions slaughtered by Communism, various forms of state Socialism, and Maoism (“Russia will spread its errors to the whole world…”) , we have a clearer vision of her effort to spare us from destruction, both spiritual and natural. We can’t look to the spiritual leaders like Maradiaga, at least: they have sold out to a neo-Utopianism which will undoubtedly end up being a great slave state, like all the others. But Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart will triumph, and therein is the answer.
If Pope Francis is aligning himself with the liberals and the United Nations, he is keeping bad company. There is no scientific proof that there is global warning. It has been said there is a consensus (group opinion) that there is global warming. Science is based on proof, not the opinion a group of people. There is evidence that a group of scientists at the University of East Anglia University in England were falsifying data to allege global warming. Pope Francis has enough work to do to lead the people in Catholic faith and morals. He could try to provide better catechesis around the world.
Some more anti-Capitalist deep thoughts from the Pope’s closest advisor:
“1. Man is unable to have any relationship with his natural environment that is not based on plunder.Throughout History, our race has broken the laws of natural equilibrium: thus we have made the water on this planet undrinkable and its air unbreathable, we have polluted the soil to the point of barrenness, and we have implemented unequal and inequitable socio- economic resource management and distribution strategies.This sorry land- scape is often known as “environmental crisis”.
Ethical considerations have been present ever since man became aware of his intervention in the world…
2. In the face of the all-too-evident destruction of Nature, the current capitalist system cannot, on account of its very essence, attain sustainable development, as it engenders and feeds on inequity and social injustice, and is based on the unbridled and predatory use of natural resources, the anarchic production of goods and the encouragement of consumption with the goal of obtaining and concentrating profit”
Of course there are people who are already critical of an encyclical that has not been made public, as the very subject matter is ripe with various opinions. Former presidential candidate Al Gore has made millions off the subject of climate change linked to environmental pollutants and been awarded Nobel Peace Prize. Other men and women of equal or greater intelligence believe that climate change is cyclical and does not have anything to do with the environment or industrial pollutants. If Global Warming is really on the increase- try telling this to the good people of Buffalo, New York and other parts of the North East after record snow falls this winter 2014/15. The Polar Bears in Alaska are doing very nicely thank you- contrary to environmental alarmists. Holy Father- Please stick to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for your Encyclicals and allow reputable scientists to debate about the environment!
Will someone please send an exterminator to the Vatican to address the rat problem.
Interestingly, even the environmentalists in California have conceded through their actions that man made climate change is no worse than the risk of having additional nuclear power plants or the risk posed by having new hydroelectric plants.
Evidence for this statement is shown through the enactment of California’s climate change rules which provides incentives for the power industry to construct alternative forms of energy production but provides no incentives for ultra low carbon hydroelectric and nuclear plants. If man made climate change is hazardous, such low carbon, high energy output plants are instrumental to our survival.
Therefore, since the threat of climate change is relatively minor compared to the hype, is it smart for the world to spend a thousand trillion dollars on a farce that will undoubtedly be spent at the expense of the poor?
The politicians even fight over where to put the windmills used for energy here in California because they are so unsightly and are killing the birds that get caught in them. When corn is used for fuel than the price of the corn used for food goes up. It seems to be a no win situation.
I think the primary advisor ought to talk about something of which he may have knowledge, hopefully the Catholic Faith. He has fallen into nonsense.
The headline of this article doesn’t make any sense. There has never in the history of the Church been a period when capitalism and the defense of “free” (HA HA) markets have been “popular” at the Vatican. For the very good reason enunciated by Pope John Paul when he was a young priest: “The church is aware that the bourgeois mentality and capitalism as a whole, with its materialist spirit, acutely contradict the Gospel.”
Pope Pius XI called dissenters from the Church’s authoritative condemnation of capitalism and free markets “social modernists.”
A couple of excerpts from Pope Leo’s encyclical “Rerum novarum” which make plain how welcome capitalists were at the Vatican in 1891:
When there is a question of defending the rights of individuals, the poor and helpless have a claim to special consideration. The richer class have many ways of shielding themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; whereas those who are badly off have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly depend upon the assistance of the State. And it is for this reason that wage-earners, who are undoubtedly among the weak and necessitous, should be especially cared for and protected by government.
It has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, all isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is . . . still practiced by covetous and grasping men. A small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
Joseph Ratzinger, aka ‘the Green Pope,’ made capitalists VERY unwelcome:
But in Europe, in the 19th century, the two models [of church-state relations] were joined by a third, socialism, which quickly split into two different branches, one totalitarian and the other democratic. Democratic socialism managed to fit within the two existing models as a welcome counterweight to the radical liberal positions, which it developed and corrected. It also managed to appeal to various denominations. In England it became the political party of the Catholics, who had never felt at home among either the Protestant conservatives or the liberals. In Wilhelmine Germany, too, Catholic groups felt closer to democratic socialism than to the rigidly Prussian and Protestant conservative forces. In many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.
“The ideology surrounding environmental issues is too tied to a capitalism that doesn’t want to stop ruining the environment because they don’t want to give up their profits”. So what he’s saying is that he has decided that he doesn’t need to bother to hear the reasoning of the other side because he can read their minds and knows their motivations. Opposition apparently has nothing to with the fact that the solutions so far proposed would only further burden the poor and third world, while doing nothing to fix anything. Or that the money goes to despots and Malthusians. Instead, it boils down to: “The only reason to disagree with my favorite politicians has to be out of of malice, greed, and a desire to destroy the world that our children will have to live in.” What a courageous shepherd.
A decade or more ago, the Argentinians ran up their bank debts, then refused to pay them back, and were bailed out by the US and International Monetary Fund. At present, the same problem is recurring, and it looks as if the US taxpayer will once again, have to pay the bill. Naturally, this means Argentinians hate the USA, and blame us for their lack of financial responsibility. Anti-American sentiment is the unifying theme for all of South America’s problems, and not surprisingly, it will now be part of Vatican politics.
An excellent point, “Joe”. Take a look at a recent article, “Pope Francis extends agenda of change to Vatican diplomacy,” by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie (Reuters) (May 17, 2015). Francis, essentially, is exercising his power as Pontiff and as Head of State to seek to achieve an ambitious political agenda, one not at all in keeping with the best interests of Catholic, or of Americans.
Francis is Argentinian of Italian descent. He is like all men of that place, and time. He is socialist, with a deep distrust of private capital and individual economic decision-making. To Francis, the “people” or the “collective” are in charge, with the State to serve as facilitator of economic redistribution, and squishy concepts of “fairness” and “social justice”.
Of course, the history of Argentina (and many, many other countries) shows that things do not work out this way. Instead of paradise, the State assumes all power, and individual rights are expunged. Tradition is always opposed as it represents a different, and uncontrollable, power source. A pope from Argentina is precisely the very worst choice imaginable for the Church, and Francis does not disappoint that conclusion.
Next to come (after his USA visit and the October Synod) is a vicious crack-down on Catholic Tradition and the TLM. Now, Francis mostly tolerates the status quo, but this will soon change, as he consolidates more power in the political sphere. One wonders how Francis justifies his actions with what Christ said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s”. Matt. 22:21.
Now today comes word relayed to me that Fr.Timothy Radcliffe, the former Dominican Master General, was just appointed by Pope Francis to be a consultor for the Committee on Peace and justice. Pope Francis has to know that this man is an extreme radical and has been well known regarding his wildly divergent
teachings against Catholic sexual morality, as well as positions on many other topics. At this point, Pope Francis has to be responsible for the decisions and the people he is making. Like the choice of Maradiaga, like the advisors for the “climate encyclical”, they are disastrous and he must bear full responsibility.
This pope, this Argentinian, this man of many faces who can say two conflicting ideas in the same breath…such a ‘father’ , such a shepherd to his flock that he does not know our names nor does he care if we’re eaten by wolves. A whirling dervish, a cyclone, all wind and noise, what cover we’ve found for spiritual growth and peace he’s huffing and puffing and blowing away. Head for the hills!
Oops. That was my post. Sorry. Cont’d…(math25:11-
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come. When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.