Pope calls unfettered capitalism ‘the dung of the devil

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• as a catholic i don't really care for this guy --he is way too far left for me. he should be worrying about heretics like michael pfleger in chicago rather than socialists in south america

  • AMEN!!

• Capitalism only sucks when the bribe to the Church isn't big enough.

• I have 5 words for this chump. Go F**k an Altar Boy.

  • HEY!! What have you got against Altar Boys? I used to be one, and never had any issues with the priests in my parish. They never touched any boys that I knew.

    • I mean no personal insult. That is just my expression of contempt for pope trotsky.

      • I know, I'm just a bit jumpy this week.

• "Quoting a fourth century bishop, he called the unfettered pursuit of money “the dung of the devil”, "

  I think there's a slight difference between that and your headline ascribing that thought to "unfettered capitalism." If you look up Scripture, I think you will find numerous citations cautioning against avarice and greed, and admonitions to "lay up treasure in Heaven" rather than placing your hope in worldly wealth. I think I also recall some Biblical personality who told some people to sell all their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.

  Now, there is a WORLD of difference between doing such things on ones own out of love, and mandating that these ideals be instituted as government programs, and let's not confound the two. Perhaps the Pope is muddling the line between them. But what he said, at least as reported on the linked page, contains NOTHING un-Christian, and NOTHING a Christian should balk at.

  Ayn Rand would have fits, though.

  • I understand your concern here but I think the Gaurdian's paraphrase, while based on something implicit, is completely valid. The Pope is blaming a socio-economic system here (which he has in the past identified as unregulated capitalism) and his "communitarian" solution to the exploitation of the masses punished by this system is global financial governance granted through a partnership of country's and the dictatorship of a would be proletariat. The speech (which I will link to) is heavily influenced by Marxist thought (of course you could not have been expected to know that without reading it, and the speech wasn't linked in the post) as are many of the solutions he calls for.

    I don't have too many comments about the religious aspect of it other than to say (well there will be one more at the end) I didn't see much concern for the next world in the Pope's speech. In fact he doesn't seem to have much faith at all that God is in control of anything.

    I also much suggest that a free market is not a system of greed or avarice. It is a system of mutual benefit in which the best interests of everybody are served as their labor and exchange of property cannot be compelled. Sure it is overly concerned with materialism. But it is a system of economics, what else would it be concerned with?

    For a system of greed and avarice I suggest that is what the Pope is a champion of. At least it seems there are few terms better to describe a collusion of the state and the economy in which nobody owns their own labor, private property and the good of the individual is sacrificed to whatever greater good of the community the overlords decide is necessary at that particular moment in time.

    But I do agree it is better to lay away your treasures in heaven. And I am so glad to live in a system where I have that choice. And regardless of what Ayn Rand would think about that choice she never sought, like this Pope, to take it away.

    Thank you for your thoughts. They were compelling and I truly enjoyed considering them.

    http://time.com/3952885/pope-francis-bolivia-poverty-speech-transcript/

  • Unfortunately, the Pope has a history of treading into waters in which he is unfamiliar. Normally, these missteps are economic in nature but recently he has added climate change to his repertoire. In my opinion, the Pope has latched onto decidedly leftist positions because of their redistributive natures. I believe he is confused about the differences between charity and confiscation.

    • I don't believe he is confused about this, any more than I believe King Barky is confused about his position on redistribution, sanctuary cities, and race relations.

• Tell me, Your Holiness, where is there unfettered capitalism?

  This Pope likes his straw men.

• This Pope/Dope is showing his South American Socialist roots. He should be an authority on Dung of all sorts.
  This sounds like more Papal Bull.

• Said a communist sitting on a couple billion dollars...Nothing like being a hypocrite...Speaking of the devils dung, hows it going with your cuddles with the moselimbs Mr. Pope?

• If the Pope were the Anti-Christ, what would he be doing differently?

• The only thing worse that unfettered capitalism is the fettered capitalism that comes from the cronyism that we have today. We don't have capitalism. You don't have capitalism when the FED controls the money supply and buys up debt like it does. You don't have capitalism when the winners and losers are dictated by corrupt laws and even more corrupt subsidies.

  This Pope doesn't understand science, economics, morality or ethics.

  Is the Pope Catholic? Nope.

  Capitalism is the physical embodiment of free will. It is only when govt gets in and tries to 'fix' the economy that you can get this bastardized capitalism that destroys the individual spirit.

  I was excited by this Pope, then perplexed and then infuriated. The press miss reporting the actuality of his statements made me give him a second chance. When he didn't drop that Crucifix on a hammer and sickle on the floor- he lost me.

  JPII would have bludgeoned that commie bastard who handed it to him.

• And it begins to make more sense why the Pope has signed on to the climate change scam since THAT has been outed as being about destroying capitalism and NOT about global temperatures.