Pope says he isn't a communist

[Polak]

I found it intriguing that in his Mass homily today, Pope Francis explained that what he says about structural injustice in the world and us being judged by God on how we treat the poor, isn’t ‘being a communist’.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...w-we-treated-the-poor-says-pope-francis-88891

It was interesting, and also a bit of a shame, that the Pope felt the need to say this.

“It is a part of the cityscape to have poor people. However, the vast majority of the poor are victims of economic policies, of financial policies. Some recent statistics make the summary like this: there is a lot of money in the hands of a few and so much poverty in many … and this is the poverty of so many victims of the structural injustice in the global economy,” he said.

Pope Francis then told the story of the time he visited an abandoned factory in Buenos Aires where middle-class families took refuge after being evicted for not paying rent.

“They went there because they could not pay the rent. The new poor, who must leave the house because they cannot pay, go there. It is that injustice of the economic or financial organization that brings them so. And there are many, many [people] to the point that we will meet them in the judgment,” he said.

“And this is not being a communist, this is the heart of the Gospel: we will be judged on this,” the pope added.

I think he is right to often talk about world inequality and I do wonder why he is so often attacked for being a communist, just because he cares about the economic inequalities in the world?

 

[Lou2U]

Thanks for posting his speech, I like it a lot. I agree with you - it’s such a shame.

 

[billsherman]

I do wonder why he is so often attacked for being a communist, just because he cares about the economic inequalities in the world?

I’m curious if the attacks are different outside the United States.

There is a decent percentage of Americans, including Catholics, who have adopted the idea that anything that attempts to put any limit on the most selfish pursuit of unlimited money is some form of communism. This includes any claim that workers can be exploited, or that wealth is not a good end in and of itself.

 

[Polak]

I certainly think they can be. I have also heard it said in Europe, although I hear it mostly from right wingers, often Republicans, in the USA.

In Poland there are also many right wing Catholics who don’t like him. I think his call for countries to take in immigrants is one of the main reasons for that. Also the fact that he isn’t JPII. A lot of Poles have got into this habit of comparing other Popes to ‘their Pope’, and of course, no other Pope is as good.

 

[ATraveller]

BREAKING NEWS​

UPDATE: Pope says he is Catholic
We’ll bring you more details when they become available. We’ll be speaking to our team of reporters around the world as soon as we can.

 

[poche]

I agree. I think it is dishonest to call Pope Francis a communist when he preaches against being selfish.

 

[silentwitness]

Concentrating on attacking the rich is a mistake which in the end not only creates worse economic outcomes but along the way stokes envy and greed and many times horrible violence.

The question is about allowing people to benefit from stable politics and economic development so that the pool of ‘rich’ people becomes larger and larger and everyone is lifted up.

Communism and the attack on the rich is a huge mistake and has caused the greatest evil in the last 100 years.

What many are really asking for is that people’s own wealth to be taken by the state. The state is not some good force of communal ownership. It is a political beaurocratic elite who did not create that wealth but who wish to keep taking it into perpetuity until the inevitable collapse.

This evil is done in the name of an ‘enlightened Progressiveness’ which is nothing short of a new and corrupt religion which wants power.

 

[ontheway1]

As the head of the universal church, he is obligated to speak for the poor and the oppressed. He also has the obligation to do something to support the poor and Ihope he is doing just that.

 

[pnewton]

Thanks for posting that. He has dealt with communists and social justice gone amok, as well as social justice ignored.