The Pope is a Liberal. Who Knew?

[SedesDomi]

SedesDomi, where did the quote that you posted at the beginning of this thread come from? Who is being quoted? Where did this item originally appear?

Click on the link in the first sentence of the original post.

 

[Brendan]

I knew!

IMHO anyone who has actually read the New Testament and the works of many of our Saints / Theologians can’t be a fiscal conservative in the US Republican sense of the word.

Do you mean this part of the New Testament?

On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

2 Thess 3 8-10

Or how about this part of Rerum Novarum ( which Pope Benedict just commerated in his encyclical)

True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth. In like manner, if within the precincts of the household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the other its proper due; for this is not to deprive citizens of their rights, but justly and properly to safeguard and strengthen them. But the rulers of the commonwealth must go no further;here, nature bids them stop.

That is the principle of “Subsidiary”, if someone is in exceeding distress, without friends to assist (note the first step, private assistance) and without any prospect of extracting themselves (see 2 Thess 3 above), then, and only then, should the State step in.

So yes, I have read the New Testament, and the Saints as well. In fact the saints are a great example of what Pope Leo was talking about above, the first line of charity is not the State, but the Church. I can’t think of a single example of a saint that did not advocate private charity; doing the work themselves, with private donors, instead of relying on state funding.

Totally free markets don’t work… that has been proven.

That’s fine, we have never had a ‘totally free’ market, there has always been regulation.

 

[turtle18]

Some of the wealthiest people in America and the world (Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc.) are liberal democrats.

I don’t know why this perception exists that only “conservative” Republicans are the party of greed and fat cats.

 

[Holly3278]

Other than gay marriage you have just meet one in me Holly and from day to day I am not all that sure of gay marriage.

Well, maybe there are some out there who aren’t for all of the things that I mentioned but I do believe that most liberals are.

Oh and technically we did not meet.