Suck it, Santorum: The New Pope is just as critical of unfettered capitalism as every other Pope was
The American press is making a big deal about the new Pope’s writings and statements against unfettered capitalism and for social justice as if that is something new and that the last Pope’s including John Paul II, who fought communism was somehow a Reaganite or Thatcherite in their view of capitalism. But John Paul II turned his eye against capitalism late in his papacy and also had to deal with the insanity of the American empire under Bush (he condemned the Iraq war as an unjust war).
That is where we kind of saw the American right sort of pull away from Catholics somewhat. I am not a Catholic but I did detect the American right go insane against the late pope over Iraq so the Papal pronouncements against capitalism and consumerism was sort of ignored.
It is clear American Catholic conservatives like Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan ignored the Papal views on capitalism.
Let’s see them try and down talk the papal view of capitalism now.
As a non-catholic I will enjoy Santorum and Ryan being brow-beaten by their own church on their view of Ayn Rand capitalism.
Although a few are prospering economically, the vast majority of Latvians are now worse off than they were under Soviet rule. It was an appropriate setting for the Pope’s message.
In Riga, John Paul took on capitalism. The Church, he pronounced, regarded the system now dominant in the world as responsible for “grave social injustices.” In its worst form it was ultimately responsible for creating the totalitarian and authoritarian alternatives that had divided the world for most of the twentieth century.
“The needs from which [socialism] had historically arisen were real and serious,” he said. “The situation of exploitation to which an inhumane capitalism had subjected the proletariat since the beginning of industrialized society was indeed an evil. This, basically, was Marxism’s kernel of truth, which enabled it to present itself as an attractive reality to Western society.”