The whining about the present Pope, who is very different in style from the last one but who has said nothing remotely new, is coming from quarters that at least the early Saint John Paul II, and up to a point even Benedict XVI, had to indulge because they were or had been useful allies during the Cold War.
In fact, both Popes were quietly contemptuous in politely but firmly dismissing such people's dabbling in amateur theology (Marian Co-Redemption, celibacy as somehow of the esse of the Priesthood, and that kind of thing), and they were both thoroughly outspoken, as the Church always has been, in denouncing such people's preferred economic system and the attendant geopolitics.
In view of John Paul's strong anti-Communism, they affected not to notice, and that affectation continued into and throughout Benedict's Pontificate. But there now seems to have been a realisation as to quite how long ago the Cold War was.
The economic collapse, and the wars of the last dozen years, are what frame the debate today. Pope Francis is being wholly unremarkable in saying so. If anyone does not like that, then tough. They have clearly just begun to pay attention. Better late than never.
If anyone else but a Pope had suggested a World Political Authority and a desire to put tax and spending powers in the hands of the UN, we'd assume we were listening to another Communist tyrant or at least a European Commissioner.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Popes have suggested such things doesn't make them any better.
Disturbing stuff.
As Thomas Sowell long ago pointed out, taxation (a necessary evil given by consent under strict conditions) is money taken by force from the people, under an agreement that an elected government will take no more than the minimum that is absolutely necessary. It was never conceived of as a tool of utopian social engineering.
He means the Papacy, but that is not going to happen. Although even you couldn't deny that the world would be a much better place if it did. It won't though. Alas.
ReplyDelete