Pope Francis Tweets "Inequality is the root of social evil”

[Dawnia]

It’s worth pointing out that it can also be translated as “Injustice is the root of evil,” which, based on the sentimentality that I gather from Pope Francis, I’d say may very well be the most likely translation.

EDIT: Not that I rely on Google for absolute truths, but as far as data aggregation and analysis goes, they have some expertise in the field. According to their translator statistics, translating iniquitas as inequality is considered a rarity. The most commonly used translation of iniquitas is iniquity, with injustice being a more uncommon translation.

Just worth a thought…

The English Pontifex feed has it as “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

 

[Dawnia]

Has anyone considered that the statement is NOT a value judgment on inequality?

Often, people respond to inequality with envy. Thus, the inequality leads to the envy, which leads to the social evil. If you minimize the inequality, you minimize the social evil.

None of this implies that inequality is an intrinsic evil. Something can be the source of evil without being evil.

Good points. Also, theft, violence, murder, drug addiction, child abuse, etc are more prevelant among the poor.

 

[Daphnexyz]

It seems to me that the Pope’s three-word phrase in latin, translated in a variety of ways, is kind of like a Rorschach (sp?) test. Our interpretations about what he meant and what it might mean reveals much more about us than it does about the Holy Father. We are meaning-seeking creatures, after all.

 

[BChartowski]

The English Pontifex feed has it as “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

Which raises the question: Where did the translator see the word “socialis” in the Latin post that wiggled its way into the English? There’s no real way to extract that from the very simple Latin phrase.

 

[ProVobis]

The English Pontifex feed has it as “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

FWIW, the Spanish has it: La desigualdad es la raíz de los males sociales.

the Polish: Nierówność jest korzeniem niesprawiedliwości społecznej.

the Italian: L’inequità è la radice dei mali sociali.

So all I can say is

 

[stevegravy]

Maybe the pope is just bored with the standard 7 deadly sins and wants an 8th. Or maybe taking a cue from the US government department of education Common Core goals and reducing 7 deadly sins to one. Make it easier to pass. Now if he could make it afro-centric it could be used in Chicago!

 

[zz912]

It seems some on here are viewing this tweet as directed at the US alone. The Pope is Pope of the whole world. That phrase can just as easily apply to socialist countries or other totalitarian countries around the world who have TRUE poverty.

 

[Dawnia]

FWIW, the Spanish has it: La desigualdad es la raíz de los males sociales.

the Polish: Nierówność jest korzeniem niesprawiedliwości społecznej.

the Italian: L’inequità è la radice dei mali sociali.

So all I can say is

Maybe the Latin is wrong? Hmmmm…

 

[Robert_Sock]

I agree: Jobs and job growth are what is needed–not income equality. And a disparity between rich and poor has nothing to do with income equality. A billionaire can generate income by letting his money do the work.

But jobs are the main route to income growth and less income disparity. Nothing the government is now doing or attempting, including such things as a minimum wage increase, will lead to job growth, which is needed.

Yes, good paying jobs are needed, but there will still be those working at minimum wage who will not be able to make their monthly expenses. Increasing the minimum is sorely needed for these people. The huge gap between those with high net worth and the minimum wage workers net worth, needs to be narrowed.

LOVE!

 

[Prodigal_Son]

It seems some on here are viewing this tweet as directed at the US alone. The Pope is Pope of the whole world. That phrase can just as easily apply to socialist countries or other totalitarian countries around the world who have TRUE poverty.

Or to our country as a whole, which glorifies and accumulates wealth, thereby becoming a near occasion of sin to those in other countries who envy our opulence.

 

[ProVobis]

It’s worth pointing out that it can also be translated as “Injustice is the root of evil,” which, based on the sentimentality that I gather from Pope Francis, I’d say may very well be the most likely translation.

EDIT: Not that I rely on Google for absolute truths, but as far as data aggregation and analysis goes, they have some expertise in the field. According to their translator statistics, translating iniquitas as inequality is considered a rarity. The most commonly used translation of iniquitas is iniquity, with injustice being a more uncommon translation.

Just worth a thought…

According to Cassell’s Latin Dictionary,

Iniquitas can mean

Unevenness, as in loci (place)

(1) Unfavorableness,
Difficulty, as in temporis (Cic) rerum (Caes)

(2) Unfairness,
Injustice,
Unreasonableness, as in hominis, (Cic)

In the tweet context, everything points to (2) as the likely meaning, which I believe agrees with your first thought.

 

[ringil]

Now if he could make it afro-centric it could be used in Chicago!

Seriously?? What the heck is that supposed to mean??

 

[ProVobis]

Maybe the Latin is wrong? Hmmmm…

Maybe someone can ask Msgr Gallagher then.

youtube.com/watch?v=7DkrI9p4M5U

youtube.com/watch?v=CiJBWewQb4o

 

[Ender]

According to Cassell’s Latin Dictionary,

Iniquitas can mean …

While there may be some legitimate debate over the meaning of “iniquitas”, there is simply no doubt that there is nothing in the pope’s tweet that would translate to the word “social”. Whatever “Iniquitas radix malorum” actually means we can be sure it does not mean “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

Ender

 

[ProVobis]

While there may be some legitimate debate over the meaning of “iniquitas”, there is simply no doubt that there is nothing in the pope’s tweet that would translate to the word “social”. Whatever “Iniquitas radix malorum” actually means we can be sure it does not mean “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

Ender

You are right. It seems “communis,” “civilis”, “moralis” or some cognate or social could have been but it wasn’t.

One can only imagine the outcry (or lack of it) had Cicero’s Primum, minima de malis been translated as “Of social evils, choose the least.”

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Also, there is no definite article in the original. Doesn’t that mean that inequality is A root of evil?

 

[gracepoole]

From the OP’s article:

It’s the 21st century equivalent of the New Testament admonition that “the love of money is the root of all evil” in an age when critics say the globalized capitalist system is rigged against the poor.

In the American context, however, Francis’ statement was like tossing a match onto a field of dry hay.

Given the comments here thus far, the above is certainly an accurate analogy. It might be wise whenever Pope Francis speaks candidly to ask why we’re responding as we are and whether our attempts to qualify or refute his comments say more about ourselves than they do about the Pontiff or the issue he’s addressing.

 

[FollowChrist34]

According to Cassell’s Latin Dictionary,

Iniquitas can mean

(2) Unfairness,
Injustice,
Unreasonableness, as in hominis, (Cic)

In the tweet context, everything points to (2) as the likely meaning, which I believe agrees with your first thought.

Agreed. I take it to mean social injustice resulting from valuing money or material wealth over and against the human dignity of others. Living for the values of this world rather than the kingdom of God. Here’s Blessed John Paul II:

“Christ alone can free man from what enslaves him to evil and selfishness: from the frantic search for material possessions, from the thirst for power and control over others and things, from the illusion of easy success, from the frenzy of consumerism and hedonism which ultimately destroy the human being.”

Where your heart is, there your treasure lies …

Pretty basic stuff. I don’t think it hurts for us to take the reminder to heart and I don’t think it means the Pope is condemning capitalism and the free market economy and telling us to ditch it in favor of an alternative ideology, i.e., socialism. That’s an awful lot to surmise from such a little pretty darn traditional Christian tweet…

We tend to get a little hypersensitive and overworked here in conservative vs. liberal Catholicland …

 

[ProVobis]

Also, there is no definite article in the original. Doesn’t that mean that inequality is A root of evil?

Actually that’s a fair point. Latin does have a way around English articles (as does Polish and many other languages as well) but let’s get the subject right first.

 

[Veridical16]

Thank God for the South American bishop raised up to be our POPE. He isn’t bogged down by Americanist rhetoric about Capitalism that pervades the body of lay Catholics and clergy in America…

Only in America are we too inundated with the usual “left and right” paradigm, we take offense to an innocuous tweet – when there is nothing wrong with criticizing the current situation of economic disparity.

A nation should not be proud of its concentration of wealth being among the few.

That kind of Opulence is not progress, that is ***not ***a sign of success or God’s blessings, as we’re told to believe at political conventions every four years . if men want Mammon rather than a culture built on charity, God leaves them to their devices.

Hopefully soon more and more Catholics will wake up and reject embracing false economic messages based on half truths and recognize when messages *are not compatible *with Catholic Social Teaching. (As well rejecting those prominent rightist Catholics with the power of pen and ink – who make a point to reject Pontiffs teachings on economics ’ because what does God’s vicar know about economics '? )

The reason why the Republican party has failed to really offer anything to counter the Democrat Party message during Presidential elections is because people tune out the same ol’ economic message.
Even if the Democrat voters are wrong by putting their trust in the state, at least they express pity for the poor, with a warped sense of doing good for people…

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types – the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution.”

• Chesterton

‘The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone**. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless**. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.’

-Chesterton

Meanwhile Republican Party mouthpieces promote a detached sense of valuing the poor. "Oh The poor will be taken care of through a natural course of the markets , through a natural reaction that requires little effort on man 's part and is an indirect consequence of his responsibilities, and all has to do with the economic system itself! "

I think instinctually, human beings know that is BS, that is why they tune out the message.
To say that the poor are helped as a byproduct of man’s self-interest for material goods – is just another way of saying the poor will be grateful for the crumbs of greedy men.
This is why the Republican party has never been successful in attracting enough Catholics. And this is why Catholics have become split across party lines because we’ve been confused about the whole of Catholic Teaching

Catholics should read Amintore Fanfani’s book on Capitalism

“Capitalism requires such a dread of loss, such a forgetfulness of human brotherhood, such a certainty that a man’s neighbor is merely a customer to be gained or a rival to be overthrown, and all these are inconceivable in the Catholic conception of the world.”

Amintore Fanfani.

A review of Fanfani’s
**
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism **
integralcatholicsocialteachings.blogspot.com/2009/04/fanfanis-catholicism-protestantism-and.html
by

Dr. Peter E. Chojnowski