A short time ago I wrote a blog criticizing Pope Francis for his coming encyclical about climate change. I reminded the Pope that his status as Vicar of Christ relates to religious matters, not the political cause du jour. My exact words were “… in my admittedly limited research on the bible, I cannot recall ever seeing him designated as Vicar Of Environmental Political Correctness”.
But, in fairness to the Pope, sometimes he is accused of venturing into non-religious territory when it never happened. And the claims being made that, while speaking in Bolivia this past week, he called Capitalism “the dung of the devil” is one such instance.
Want to know what Pope Francis really did say, in context – something any media person could find as easily as I did?
Okay, here it is:
“The earth, entire peoples and individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung of the devil”. An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people\’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.”
As you can plainly see, Pope Francis was speaking about love of money, as a general precept. NOT any specific system of government, Capitalism or otherwise.
And, far from being political commentary, this comes straight out the bible – specifically Timothy 6:10, which says:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
So, while I have no problem criticizing the Pope for, in my opnion, too facilely combining politics and religion, his “dung of the devil” comment does not at all do so.
Now: wouldn\’t it be nice if some of the media venues, and leftists who licked their chops over the Pope\’s supposed denunciation of Capitalism, acknowledged they were wrong?
Don\’t hang by your thumbs waiting for it to happen.
