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From: gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Catholic Pastoral Letter
Message-ID: <130@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Nov-84 18:26:53 EST
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.130
Posted: Thu Nov 22 18:26:53 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Nov-84 03:42:13 EST
References: <86@cadre.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor)
Distribution: net.religion
Organization: Theory Center (Cornell University)
Lines: 46
Summary: 

Another Fuzzy Headed Sacramentalist Liberal Speaks:

So, the Catholic Bishops are "unqualified" to talk about the difficulties
of Economic policy? I guess that when we intone the "Ubi Caritas", we're
talking about  uh....a sort of "Hail Fellow Well Met." kind of live-and-let
live tolerance.

As someone interested for some time in the push and pull of AMerican Politics
and Religion, I was frankly surprised by the tone of the bishops' letter. I
expect a sort of "rah rah" note along the lines of Geo. Gilder or the Heritage
foundation....not unlike the head of IBM who showed up here at Cornell and 
solemly intoned that Capitalism was the best of all possible worlds because
it held the most realistic notions of the frailty of the Human character.

The Catholic Bishops are in a perfectly good position to take a look at the
people left on the outside as the Captains of Industry advance....especially
if the current leader of God's chosen nation continues to send the poor, the
homeless, the destitute, the lazy and shiftless(oops ;-) ) into the purview
of the church by encouraging charity in the private sector. The bishops
(notably the Urban ones) have seen quite well what the free market does to
those who miss out, becuase whty're often the ones who take care of them.

Looking at the actual text of the letter (I got *real* curious about the thing
when I only got a whiff of it, and went and hunted up the real text), I
do not find any sweeping call for dying our flag red or even pink....merely
the entirely accurate judgement that the "benefits" of capitalism have
exacted a horrible toll that is often overlooked, and that toll is kept well
out of the sight of those who benefit. As I see the document, the bishops
are very careful to point out the successes of the system as well as the
failures, and their chief crime is to suggest that those who profit at the
expense of others bear a responsibility for those they vanquish inthe free
market if they are going to claim to be Christian (those who would merely
co-opt Christian opinions on, say, abortion, and believe none of it save
what it requires to be re-elected are, of course, exempt). That sounds
dangerously Socialist, but of course it's instructive to note that a fair
amount of the early Christian community looked pretty Socialist as well
(se the Book of the Acts of the Apostles).

You looked recently at John Paul's response to the letter. For someone
as convicted of the evils of the Communist system as he is, he was full
of praise for the insight into Christian responsibility (he also made
it clear that he does disagree on some points, but hey.....). You wanna
try some real commie stuff? Try reading JPII's last encyclical on labour....
disgustingly pro-Union crypto-Socialist drivel ;-)

G.