Did Pope Benedict XVI just voice his support to liberals and to the Occupy Wall Street protestors and their movement? This weekend, the Pope released two statements calling for support of those who are hungry, likening it to the support of the right to life. Pope Benedict XVI also discussed the vast income disparities the world is seeing, and the need for investment in infrastructure, as well as the importance of not supporting capitalism just for its own sake. All of these issues are directly incorporated into the Occupy Wall Street movement.
It is important to note that America’s conservatives, both Tea Party and Republican alike, have ignored the Pope’s calls for investment in infrastructure, helping those in need, and firmly believe the right to life actions begin at conception but end at birth, all in contradiction to the Pope’s teachings.
“Freedom from the yoke of hunger is the first concrete manifestation of that right to life which, although solemnly proclaimed, often remains far from being effectively implemented,” Pope Benedict XVI said.
U.S. Catholic reports:
“There are clear signs of the profound division between those who lack daily sustenance and those who have huge resources at their disposal,” he said. Given the dramatic nature of the problem, reflection and analysis are not enough — action must be taken, he said.
The pope said it was easy but mistaken to “reduce every consideration to the food demands of a growing population.” Demographic experts have predicted that the earth’s population will reach 7 billion by Oct. 31.
The real solution to food imbalances, the pope said, lies in modifying behavior and changing structures so that “every person, today and not tomorrow, has access to the necessary food resources” and so that agricultural production has stability.
He said the major challenges include lifestyle changes to promote moderation in consumption and the protection of natural resources, as well as new investments in agricultural infrastructure.
One day previously, the Pope discussed capitalism, stating it is not an end unto itself, unlike America’s Republican and Tea Party idealists.
Pope Benedict remarked that “economic laws must always take account of the interests and the protection of this fundamental cell of society.” In today’s troubled economic environment, many families are suffering and a new approach to economic affairs is needed, the Pontiff argued.
Simple justice is not enough to ensure an economic system that favors the family, the Pope said. “In order for true justice to exist, it is necessary to add gratuitousness and solidarity.” These qualities are not ensured by the free market, nor can they be delegated to the state, he said.
Thus, the Pope said, the challenge for Christians is to devise “those types of economic initiative which, without rejecting profit, aim at a higher goal than the mere logic of the exchange of equivalents, of profit as an end in itself.”
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