Pope Francis condemns social, economic inequality as 'sickness'

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In other words, rugged individualism may be an American value, but it is not a Catholic value.

Postscript: To quote Pope Francis from his General Audience:
Property and money are instruments that can serve mission. However, we easily transform them into ends, whether individual or collective. And when this happens, essential human values are affected. The homo sapiens is deformed and becomes a species of homo œconomicus – in a detrimental sense – a species of man that is individualistic, calculating and domineering. We forget that, being created in the image and likeness of God, we are social, creative and solidary beings with an immense capacity to love. We often forget this. In fact, from among all the species, we are the beings who are the most cooperative and we flourish in community, as is seen well in the experience of the saints. There is a saying in Spanish that inspired me to write this phrase. It says: “ Florecemos en racimo, como los santos ”: we flourish in community, as is seen well in the experience of the saints.
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I encourage everyone to also read the General Audience address Pope Francis gave on August 19, for which today’s address is a continuation of. Pope Francis teaches that the “preferential option for the poor is at the centre of the Gospel”:
Faith, hope and love necessarily push us towards this preference for those most in need, which goes beyond necessary assistance. Indeed it implies walking together, letting ourselves be evangelised by them, who know the suffering Christ well, letting ourselves be “infected” by their experience of salvation, by their wisdom and by their creativity. Sharing with the poor means mutual enrichment. And, if there are unhealthy social structures that prevent them from dreaming of the future, we must work together to heal them, to change them. And we are led to this by the love of Christ, Who loved us to the extreme, and reaches the boundaries, the margins, the existential frontiers. Bringing the peripheries to the centre means focusing our life on Christ, Who “made Himself poor” for us, to enrich us “by His poverty”, as we have heard.
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The deck is stacked for some and it is not an even playing field no matter how we look at it.
 
Along with subsidiarity. Don’t see much emphasis on that any more.
 
I think the best humanity can muster, and the closest to matching the principles of Catholic social teaching, is some kind of social market economy. Sort of the principles of ordoliberalism. I don’t know. Seems about the only thing possible when it comes to reconciling society with the economy.
 
I wouldn’t go that far, myself. I am for monarchy in principle, however.
 
Because it might not be as effective as being taught by a real teacher who actually knows what he or she is doing?
 
I could build a house too if I really cared to do so. It still wouldn’t be as good of a job than it would if I had a professional do it for me.

What I was asking you then is it a sin not to homeschool your children, based on the principle of subsidiarity?
 
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They also could be distracted by the fact that they have to keep a house in addition. What I wanted to know is…is it a sin not to homeschool?

Assuming the teachers are going to corrupt your children seems like rash judgment to me.
 
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I read the relevant parts and I’m not taking away from it what you seem to be taking away from it. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding.

It says that it isn’t the best system and we shouldn’t approve of the fact that isn’t connected with the Catholic faith, but I am not interpreting what is said in that encyclical as being prohibitive, as in Catholics are forbidden to send their children to secular schools. But, like I said, I could be misinterpreting. If it is the Church’s stance that we are prohibited from doing so, I stand corrected.
 
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What about a public education for secular subjects plus a solid religious education done either yourself or through your parish (preferably both)? All the while making sure your children don’t forget who they are as Catholics and that we are in the world but not of it?
 
Thanks. This has been a thought provoking and enlightening discussion and I appreciate the time you have taken to answer my questions. I’ll stop now before I get the thread locked for what I realize now has been going off topic. Upon further reflection, though, I think this is probably a matter one should decide only after lots of prayer and with the guidance of one’s parish priest.
 
If we want to talk about wealth inequality than we have to talk about wealth creation and the obstacles that prevent it.

What concerns me is that the use of the term ‘sharing’ really means repressive taking and i am sickened when Christianity might be used as a moral cover for what is, in reality, a great evil.

Personally, i believe this pandemic clearly shows that over-reaching government is one of those obstacles.

For those from a certain political bent, over reaching government is to be the instrument for this ‘sharing’.

Very concerning.
 
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If this is such a big deal how come he only donated 250k to our brothers in Beirut, when it was the Christian portion of the city most affected, when even the LDS church donated 2 million. Over 1 billion Catholics, 2,000 years of receiving donations and all we can donate is 250k? Then when people are killing children and openly embracing Marxism in America we get talk about economic inequality being the real sickness?

Dude I am convinced that the Catholic Church is Christ’s Church. I had my entire family convert. I dropped out of my school to attend a Catholic college instead. But I’m really struggling to be happy with the state of things now that I’m here. I dont understand how we can embrace Neo-Marxism while the CCP is putting people in camps and re-writing the Gospels. I dont understand how we can tolerate America wholesale accepting that its okay to give children hormones and for people to mutilate their bodies while we focus on racism following the lowest black unemployment in the history of the country while whites are shot, per police encounter, at a higher rate than black folks even. I dont understand how we can scramble scores of babies, CHILDREN, on a daily basis and give any sort of a you know what about Trump’s taxes.

I’m so disappointed, man. This is the church, history and scripture tells me so. But this isn’t what I expected.
 
That’s a fair reaction. I myself am a convert and have had similar feelings since coming into the Church. I don’t understand how Catholicism can be so clear cut and yet have so many dissenting from its obvious teaching.
 
You missed the Arian history.

It was so long ago that it doesn’t blip the radar, but back in the 5th century nearly every Catholic priest and bishop embraced the heresy of Arianism. Seriously. And it took a good 70 plus years for the whole episode to die out.

But one thing about Catholicism —old heresies NEVER die.

They just reappear later with new names and trappings.

It took awhile but Arianism is back. This time we aren’t fighting so much Over Christ Himself, but over the PERCEPTION of Christ and Christianity.

And that’s why there are so many dissenters. When it’s all about perception, it becomes ‘individualism’ and you can have as many dissenting, “Cafeteria Catholic’, “it all depends on how you define x as” views as there are individuals.

If I ‘perceive’ Jesus as a good man but not God, well, as a Catholic Christian I can point to Catholic ‘experts’ who back me up! I can get into all sorts of nuances of belief regarding God giving Jesus a quasi-divine nature, the son being incarnate and lesser, etc. Etc.

And if perceive myself as Catholic then I have the ‘right’ for my perceptions to be considered just as ‘authentically Catholic’ as the ‘teachings of men’.

*** Please note the above are hypotheticals. I personally stand 100% with authentic Church teachings as the Church has defined through the ages.***
 
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