It’s no secret that Pope Francis reserves a special place in his heart for the Marxist political musings that have captivated much of the European and American left. Having very recently stated his belief that capitalism is an evil system which worships the “god of money,” established his solidarity with leftist climate hysteria, and denied the existence of “Islamic terror,” the charismatic pontiff has left little doubt as to where his political loyalties lie — and it seems he isn’t done commenting about it. In a message sent to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Francis again goes on a Marxist tear; now against a threat he perceives in “libertarian individualism.” Take a look:
Finally, I cannot but speak of the serious risks associated with the invasion, at high levels of culture and education in both universities and in schools, of positions of libertarian individualism. A common feature of this fallacious paradigm is that it minimizes the common good, that is, “living well”, a “good life” in the community framework, and exalts the selfish ideal that deceptively proposes a “beautiful life”. If individualism affirms that it is only the individual who gives value to things and interpersonal relationships, and so it is only the individual who decides what is good and what is bad, then libertarianism, today in fashion, preaches that to establish freedom and individual responsibility, it is necessary to resort to the idea of “self-causation”. Thus libertarian individualism denies the validity of the common good because on the one hand it supposes that the very idea of “common” implies the constriction of at least some individuals, and the other that the notion of “good” deprives freedom of its essence.
The radicalization of individualism in libertarian and therefore anti-social terms leads to the conclusion that everyone has the “right” to expand as far as his power allows, even at the expense of the exclusion and marginalization of the most vulnerable majority. Bonds would have to be cut inasmuch as they would limit freedom. By mistakenly matching the concept of “bond” to that of “constraint”, one ends up confusing what may condition freedom – the constraints – with the essence of created freedom, that is, bonds or relations, family and interpersonal, with the excluded and marginalized, with the common good, and finally with God. – Pope Francis
Is Pope Francis confused (as millions of useful idiots on the left are) about the inherent immorality and utter economic devastation that socialism has repeatedly delivered throughout history? Or is he one of the intellectual power brokers steering the masses toward this travesty of a system for personal benefit (i.e. every Marxist dictator in history)? Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, here succinctly explains why capitalism is both morally & economically superior (vastly in both categories) to socialism.
Libertarian & Catholic commentator, Judge Andrew Napolitano, in a recent interview, expressed his belief that the Pope simply doesn’t understand economics and has been indoctrinated from a young age to preach the gospel of communism.
I was a Friedman Freak, Milton and Rose BTW in college Econ circa 1975 onward. The Pope is a Marxist, it has been his training and his Modus Operandi from the beginning. The Monetarists and Austrian School led by Ludwig Von Mises are my preference, Human Action, Free to Choose, etc. Bastiat, Hayek, Hazlitt, Schumpeter,
Is taking monies by force and redistributing it to whatever group you chose Christian charity? No…the state relies on ignorance, laziness, and greed. America was founded on a premise of the individual, living in personal freedom requiring our responsibility to be an honest, ethical, and Judaeo-Christian moral citizen operating within our Constitutional Republican framework.
This Pope is once again leading his flock down the rosy path and over the abyss… as many have before him.
I miss John Paul II, he knew who the great enemy was, the liar from the beginning (no, no, not Hillary Clinton) and was not one of his useful idiots…