Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

Francis: Is he the Pontiff for humanity’s darkest hour?

RT.COM DISPATCH | IN THE MIDST OF AN ALMOST TOTAL AMERICAN MEDIA BLACKOUT, A HISTORICAL VISIT MARKED BY radical and unprecedented PRONOUNCEMENTS.

“This system is by now intolerable. So let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change…it must be done, and it can be done. ” ——Pope Francis

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales (L) presents a wooden hammer and sickle, with a figure of a crucified Christ resting on the hammer, as a gift to Pope Francis at the presidential palace in La Paz, July 8, 2015. (Reuters/Bolivian Presidency)

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]ope Francis has urged the people of Latin America to stand up to the world’s capitalist system and change the world economic order by creating a “truly communitarian economy” based on distribution of goods among all.

Pope Francis walks with Bolivian President Evo Morales and a children in traditional dress as he arrives at El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia, July 8. The airport is at 13,325 feet above sea level. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Starting his speech with the need to instigate change, he called on the faithful to fight to protect human dignity in a “system” where farm workers end up without land or home and laborers without rights.

“Do we realize that that system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature?” he asked at a powerful speech before a gathering of social movements in Bolivia.

Pope Francis, wearing a helmet, blesses a woman as Bolivian President Evo Morales (R) looks on, during a World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, July 9, 2015. Pope Francis on Thursday urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a “new colonialism” by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the “sacred rights” of labor, lodging and land. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Once “capital” becomes an “idol” and guides individuals and once “greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system,” it ruins society, Francis said. It enslaves individuals and destroys “ fraternity,” a system which “excludes, debases and kills.”

“This system is by now intolerable. So let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change,” Pope Francis said.

The Pope called on his followers to create a “truly communitarian economy,” a system that would guarantee the three “L’s” of land, lodging and labor.

“It is no utopia or chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it. Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation,” the Pope said in the city of Santa Cruz to participants of the second world meeting of popular movements, an international body that brings together organizations of people on the margins of society.

The Argentinian-native Pope urged the crowd to tackle “three great tasks”.

The first task is to create an economy at the ”service of peoples” not at the “service of money” Such an approach, the Pope believes, will focus on service rather than profits which in return will protect “Mother Earth.”

The second task is to unite our peoples on the “path of peace and justice” to defend their sovereignty against “colonialism.”

“The new colonialism takes on different faces. At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain free trade treaties, and the imposition of measures of austerity which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor.”

Pope Francis receives a typical sombrero from Bolivian President Evo Morales during a World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, July 9, 2015. The word “Tahuichi” is from the Tupi-Guarani and means “Big Bird”. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi – RTX1JSSB

“Monopolizing communications” is yet another example of consumerism and “new colonialism” for the Pope that ultimately denies countries the right to development.

Pope Francis called on social movements to protect their culture, their language, their social processes and their religious traditions.

The third task is environmental: to “defend Mother Earth,” by breaking down the current “system” which ravishes the planet’s ecology.

The pontiff issued a fierce condemnation of the world’s governments for what he calls “cowardice” in defending the Earth, calling it “a grave sin.”

“We cannot allow certain interests – interests which are global but not universal – to take over, to dominate states and international organizations, and to continue destroying creation,” Pope Francis concluded.

addendum | By RT.COM

‘Not to share wealth with poor is to steal’: Pope slams capitalism as ‘new tyranny’

Pope Francis (Reuters/Giampiero Sposito)

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]ope Francis has taken aim at capitalism as “a new tyranny” and is urging world leaders to step up their efforts against poverty and inequality, saying “thou shall not kill” the economy. Francis calls on rich people to share their wealth.

The existing financial system that fuels the unequal distribution of wealth and violence must be changed, the Pope warned.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” Pope Francis asked an audience at the Vatican.

The global economic crisis, which has gripped much of Europe and America, has the Pope asking how countries can function, or realize their full economic potential, if they are weighed down by the debts of capitalism.

“A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules,” the 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, said.

“To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits”,the pope’s document says.

He goes on to explain that in this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which has become the only rule we live by.

Shameful wealth

Inequality between the rich and the poor has reached a new threshold, and in his apostolic exhortation to mark the end of the “Year of Faith”, Pope Francis asks for better politicians to heal the scars capitalism made on society.

“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document issued Tuesday.

His calls to service go beyond general good Samaritan deeds, as he asks his followers for action “beyond a simple welfare mentality”.

“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor,” Francis wrote.

A recent IRS report shows that the wealth of the US’s richest 1 percent has grown by 31 percent, while the rest of the population experienced an income rise of only 1 percent.

The most recent Oxfam data shows that up to 146 million Europeans are at risk of falling into poverty by 2025 and 50 million Americans are currently suffering from severe financial hardship.

“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” he wrote.

Named after the medieval saint who chose a life of poverty, Pope Francis has gone beyond general calls for fair work, education, and healthcare.

Newly-elected Pope Francis has stepped up the fight against corrupt capitalism that has hit close to home – he was the first Pope to go after the Vatican bank and openly accused it of fraud and shady offshore tax haven deals.

In October, Pope Francis removed Vatican bank head Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, after revelations of alleged mafia money laundering and financial impropriety.

[printfriendly]

Remember: All captions and pullquotes are furnished by the editors, NOT the author(s).

What is $5 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Divine Time Import

Charlatan John C. Hagee is a typical product of American culture: a Southern ultraconservative, reactionary, a warmonger, materialist, he betrays every teaching of Christ, yet his megachurch business has thousands of customers. Can't protect fools against stupidity, but these people must be opposed.

Charlatan John C. Hagee is a typical product of American culture: a Southern ultraconservative, reactionary, Zionist and an avid warmonger, not to mention a materialist, he betrays every example of Christ, yet his megachurch business has thousands of customers. Can’t protect fools against their own stupidity, but these people must be opposed.

Prior to the 18th century – that is prior to the Enlightenment – if you had asked a literate Westerner when he or she thought the most ideal of human societies did or would exist, most of them would have located that society in the past.

The religious majority might have placed it in the biblical age of Solomon or the early Christian communities of the 1st century after Christ. Both would have been considered divinely inspired times. Now, come forward a hundred years, say to the beginning of the 19th century, and ask the same question. You would notice that the answer was beginning to change. Having passed through the Enlightenment and with the Industrial Revolution in process, the concept of continual progress had been invented, and with it some (but by no means all) people started to place that hypothetically ideal society in the future. For the futurists the question of divine guidance no longer mattered.

Today, many folks worldwide believe in progress and assume that tomorrow not only will be different from today, but will in some scientific-technological way be better. The question here is not whether they are correct, but why there isn’t a unanimous consensus in favor of progress – for clearly there is not.

The truth is that there are millions of people, Muslims, Jews and Christians and others who not only still idealize a religiously imagined past, but want, in one way or another, to import that past into the present – and not only their present but everyone else’s as well. Whatever one might think of the teachings of the Bible and Quran, this is a highly problematic desire. In fact, it is downright dangerous. The following examples will prove this point.

The Muslim Version

The Guardian newspaper recently carried a shocking article entitled “Isis Slave Markets Sell Girls .…” As the story goes, ISIS, or the self-proclaimed “Islamic State,” has set up slave markets where young girls are sold. Most of the girls seem to be war booty acquired during raids on areas populated by minorities, such as the Yazidis, who are not considered Muslim.

According to the Zainab Bangura, the UN envoy investigating the issue of sexual violence stemming from the wars in Syria and Iraq, the abduction of young girls is a ploy to attract male recruits. “The foreign fighters are the backbone of the fighting,” Bangura says, and “this is how they attract young men: we have women waiting for you, virgins you can marry.”

The UN envoy then adds that ISIS seems determined “to build a society that reflects the 13th century.” Actually, she is off by some 500 years. The time frame ISIS leadership is aiming for is the 7th century CE. That was the time of the first Islamic community, and from the ISIS point of view it was a divinely appointed one. Therefore its cultural and social practices, allegedly sanctioned by the Quran, are as legitimate today as they were in the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. So, first and foremost, the slave trade is sanctioned as a revival of a divine past. If it lures new male recruits, that is no doubt seen as a bonus.

From the point of view of modern secularized society, this is pretty crazy stuff. However, it is not unique to ISIS.

The Jewish Version

There is a sect of religious Jews who are equally determined to import into the present an aspect of an ancient, supposedly divine, past. Their aim is to resurrect Solomon’s temple, an artifact of the 6th century BCE. Rebuilding the original temple (which would them be called the “third temple” because the first two were destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, respectively) would, according to the advocacy organization the Temple Institute, “usher in a new era of universal harmony and peace.”

Given that this divine import would have to be built on the site now occupied by the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in the Islamic world, it is hard to see how peace can be the outcome. Nonetheless, according to its advocates, the Jews “have a biblical obligation to rebuild it. And, it would seem, some 43 percent of religious Israelis agree with this assertion. That means in the eyes of these particular people, the recreation of Solomon’s temple is as divinely legitimate as the slave markets run by ISIS. The major difference between the Temple Institute and ISIS is that, as of yet, the institute does not have the power to move from theory to practice.

The Christian Version

It is bad enough to reestablish slavery in the name of religion, as some fanatical Muslims have done. It is not much better to advocate rebuilding Solomon’s Temple on stolen land in the name of religion, as some fanatical Jews now want to do. Yet it is quite another thing to conspire to bring about global war in the name of religion. This seems to be the special providence of fanatical Christians.

According to TV investigative journalist Bill Moyers, Christian fundamentalist organizations with millions of members financially support Israel in order to encourage expansionism, ethnic cleansing, and preemptive war against Iran, and ultimately to trigger a third world war. What is the point of this allegedly divinely inspired mayhem? According to such Christian fundamentalist sages as John C. Hagee, all of this is necessary to pave the way for the Second Coming of Christ. Hagee knows this is so because he read it in the apocalytic writings of the New Testament.

And just who might have sympathy with such dangerous efforts to transform the present on the basis of dubious past prophecy? How about Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair, along with growing numbers of voters and legislators both in the U.S. and the UK?

How is it possible, in our scientific age, that millions, including powerful political leaders, hold to such dangerous beliefs? Obviously the Enlightenment and its humanistic teachings did not work for everyone, and even the Industrial Revolution, in its capitalist manifestation, has proved persistently unsettling. That is, unsettling to community based on age-old – and allegedly divine – principles. After all, seemingly divine teachings were the basis for Western societies, as well as those in the Middle East, for over a thousand years. Counting from the Enlightenment, competing modernity has only been around for three hundred or so years.

Hagee ingratiating himself to Zionists.

In other words, our material world might be thoroughly grounded in applied electrical engineering and computer science, but for a surprising number of us, the emotional world seems to still be grounded in the imagined words of God. No wonder religion in all its various forms makes periodic comebacks. As part of this phenomenon, some of us select a part of the “divine past” as our ideal time. Some of us even convince ourselves that the world would be so much better if we could reconstruct the present along the lines of that imagined past.

Of course, most of those who think this way never get enough power and influence to actually move from theory to practice. Occasionally, however, someone, or some group, does. In the case of the Islamic world, the leaders of ISIS seem to have achieved this status, and so what do we get? Slave markets. In Israel the Knesset is full of folks who yearn for the some variation on biblical Israel, so what do we get? Well, if not yet the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple, we get all that illegal expansion into “Judea and Samaria.” And, in the case of the Christians like George W. Bush and Tony Blair, both of whom seem to have used their worldly power to kill and maim millions in the name of prophecy, we get one war after another.

This suggests that the socio-religious outlook of Solomon, Mohammed, and Jesus Christ are simply not translatable into the modern world. Oh sure we have the Ten Commandments and all that. However, adherence to these rules should no longer be enforced as the word of God. In the West at least, they are, in a selective, updated fashion, part of the promulgated laws of multi-cultural communities – no more and no less – and it is best to keep it that way.

So let’s show some appreciation of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. When they separated religion and government, they had a strong and accurate sense of history. It was a good move, even if not a divinely inspired one. It was also the implementation of a fine Enlightenment principle – a good match for modern society.

[box type=”bio”] Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University in West Chester, PA.[/box]

[printfriendly]

Remember: All captions and pullquotes are furnished by the editors, NOT the author(s).

What is $5 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

PAUL B. FARRELL | MARKETWATCH

Opinion: Pope Francis’s anticapitalist revolution launches on Thursday

June 18 treatise from Pope Francis will get the ball rolling on an anticapitalist revolution

Pope Francis among the people during his visit in Manila.

By PAUL B. FARRELL
COLUMNIST, MarketWatch

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ark your calendar: June 18. That’s launch day for Pope Francis’s historic anticapitalist revolution, a multitargeted global revolution against out-of-control free-market capitalism driven by consumerism, against destruction of the planet’s environment, climate and natural resources for personal profits and against the greediest science deniers.

Translated bluntly, stripped of all the euphemisms and his charm, that will be the loud-and-clear message of Pope Francis’ historic encyclical coming on June 18. Pope Francis has a grand mission here on Earth, and he gives no quarter, hammering home a very simple message with no wiggle room for compromise of his principles: ‘If we destroy God’s Creation, it will destroy us,” our human civilization here on Planet Earth.

Yes, he’s blunt, tough, he is a revolutionary. And on June 18 Pope Francis’s call-to-arms will be broadcast loud, clear and worldwide. Not just to 1.2 billion Catholics, but heard by seven billion humans all across the planet. And, yes, many will oppose him, be enraged to hear the message, because it is a call-to-arms, like Paul Revere’s ride, inspiring billions to join a people’s revolution.

The fact is the pontiff is already building an army of billions, in the same spirit as Gandhi, King and Marx. These are revolutionary times. Deny it all you want, but the global zeitgeist has thrust the pope in front of a global movement, focusing, inspiring, leading billions. Future historians will call Pope Francis the “Great 21st Century Revolutionary.”

Yes, our upbeat, ever-smiling Pope Francis. As a former boxer, he loves a good match. And he’s going to get one. He is encouraging rebellion against super-rich capitalists, against fossil-fuel power-players, conservative politicians and the 67 billionaires who already own more than half the assets of the planet.

That’s the biggest reason Pope Francis is scaring the hell out of the GOP, Big Oil, the Koch Empire, Massey Coal, every other fossil-fuel billionaire and more than a hundred million climate-denying capitalists and conservatives. Their biggest fear: They’re deeply afraid the pope has started the ball rolling and they can’t stop it.

They had hoped the pope would just go away. But he is not going away. And after June 18 his power will only accelerate, as his revolutionary encyclical will challenge everything on the GOP’s free-market capitalist agenda, exposing every one of the anti-environment, antipoor, antiscience, obstructionist policies in the conservative agenda. [Not openly opposed by Democratic politicians, but supported behind closed doors, Obama-style.—Eds)

Just watch the conservative media explode with intense anger after June 18, screaming bloody murder, viciously attacking the pope on moral, scientific, economic and political grounds, anything. But most of all, remember, under all their anger, the pope’s opponents really are living in fear of what’s coming next. What’s dead ahead.

If the Pope’s hostility to capitalism—and his denunciations thereof—are regarded as serious, the propagandists will be quickly mobilized en bloc to assassinate his character. Prominent among these, wittingly or unwittingly, and certainly tragically, will be many gays and feminists, since the Pope continues to uphold retrograde views in those areas.—Editor.

Here are eight of the pope’s key warning punches edited in the Catholic Climate Covenant, from his “Apostolic Exhortation,” and in London’s Guardian and other news sources, warnings on the dangerous acceleration of global-warming risks to our civilization and the environment, along with our responsibility to “safeguard Creation, for we are the custodians of Creation. If we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us.”

For Pope Francis, there’s no room for compromise, and his enemies know it. Listen for his warnings to be expanded in his encyclical on June 18:

1. Capitalism is threatening the survival of human civilization

A “threat to peace arises from the greedy exploitation of environmental resources. Monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness.”

2. Capitalism is destroying nonrenewable resources for personal gain

“Genesis tells us that God created man and woman entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it, but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work.”

3. Capitalism has lost its ethical code, has no moral compass

“We are experiencing a moment of crisis; we see it in the environment, but mostly we see it in man. The human being is at stake: here is the urgency of human ecology! And the danger is serious because the cause of the problem is not superficial, but profound: it’s not just a matter of economics, but of ethics.”

4. Capitalists worship the golden calf of a money god

“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money” … Francis warns that “trickle-down economics is a failed theory” … the “invisible hand” of capitalism cannot be trusted … “excessive consumerism is killing our culture, values and ethics” … and “the conservative ideal of individualism is undermining the common good.”

5. Capitalists pursuit of personal wealth destroys the common good

Without a moral code, “it is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands. Greed is the motivation … An economic system centered on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.” Instead, the pope calls for a “radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation.”

6. Capitalism has no respect for Earth’s natural environment

“This task entrusted to us by God the Creator requires us to grasp the rhythm and logic of Creation. But we are often driven by pride of domination, of possessions, manipulation, of exploitation; we do not care for Creation, we do not respect it.”

7. Capitalists only see the working class as consumers and machine tools

“Nurturing and cherishing Creation is a command God gives not only at the beginning of history, but to each of us. It is part of his plan; it means causing the world to grow responsibly, transforming it so that it may be a garden, a habitable place for everyone.” Everyone.

8. Capitalism is killing our planet, our civilization and the people

Pope Francis warns that capitalism is the “root cause” of all the world’s problems: “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” as environmental damage does trickle down most on the world’s poor.

Pope Francis’ historic anti-capitalism revolution is divinely inspired

Imagine Pope Francis addressing a hostile GOP controlled joint session of the U.S. Congress in September. There’s no chance of changing the minds of those hard-right politicians, all heavily dependent on fossil-fuel special-interest donations. But he’s clearly laying the groundwork for a global revolution, and his enemies know it.

And watch the ripple effect, how his historic “Climate Change Encyclical” adds fuel to the revolution after Pope Francis addresses the UN General Assembly … how the revolution picks up steam after the UN’s Paris Climate Change Conference announces a new international treaty approved by the leaders of America, China and two hundred nations worldwide … how the revolution kicks into high-gear after the pope’s message has been translated into more than a thousand languages … and broadcast to seven billion worldwide, billions who are already directly experiencing the climate change “evils that tear man from the land of his birth.”

Bottom line: Given the global reach of his encyclical, Pope Francis’ revolution will accelerate. So the GOP’s 169 climate deniers, Big Oil, the Koch Empire and all hard-right conservatives better be prepared for a powerful backlash to their resistance.

Pope Francis’s 2015 war cry is to lead a global anticapitalist revolution, a revolution leading billions to take back their planet from a fossil-fuel industry that’s lost its moral compass to the “golden calf” and is destroying its own civilization on Planet Earth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

[box] Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He’s the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including “The Millionaire Code,” “The Winning Portfolio,” “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Investing.” Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. [/box]

ADDENDA

Pope Francis’ highly anticipated encyclical on climate change will be released Thursday to a U.S. Catholic public sharply divided on the issue.

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]ope Francis’ highly anticipated encyclical on the environment will be released Thursday, and in the U.S. — the world’s fourth-largest Catholic nation, with almost 80 million baptized people — it will reach a public sharply divided on climate change. The pontiff’s attempt to shift public discussion on the need for urgent climate action, in what may become one of the signature issues of his papacy, will not only have to persuade skeptics among the Catholic faithful but will also face the challenge of swaying a church hierarchy largely resistant to his progressive message.

As one of the most anticipated encyclicals ever, Francis’ “Laudato Sii” (“Praise Be to You”) will get a lot of attention from the church faithful, but it might not necessarily herald a massive shift in Catholic public opinion about climate change, according to Bill Portier, a professor of Catholic theology at the University of Dayton. “Whatever culture war side you’re on in this argument is going to have a whole lot to do with how you receive what the encyclical teaches,” he said.

Based on an unofficial draft of the document leaked Tuesday, the 191-page encyclical is expected to attribute climate change to human activity, while calling on Catholics and non-Catholics alike to take urgent action to address what it calls one of the most important moral issues facing society. “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity,” read an excerpt of the draft, according to a translation by the Guardian.

Pope Francis is indeed attacking the “climate deniers” and the paucity of real measures to stop the scandalous rape of the planet, but his criticism is also very much centered on capitalism as the malignant engine behind these crimes, and that is being played down in this article and many others. Keep an eye open for this kind of media sleight-of-hand.—Eds.

This message might not resonate with a broad swath of Catholics in the U.S., where skepticism toward the idea of climate change as a man-made phenomenon remains high. Reflecting a broader divide among the American public at large, Catholics are also largely split on the causes of climate change, according to a Pew survey released Tuesday in anticipation of the encyclical’s unveiling.

Divisions in Catholic views on climate change. Pew Research Center

While about 71 percent of U.S. Catholics agree that the planet is getting warmer, just under half (47 percent) attribute the change to human causes. A similar share (48 percent) characterize the issue as a serious problem. The divide between Catholics on the issue falls largely on partisan lines, with 62 percent of Catholic Democrats saying they believed that the earth’s warming is caused by human activity, compared with 24 percent of Catholic Republicans.

The impact of Francis’ encyclical on U.S. Catholic opinion is difficult to predict, said Jessica Martinez, a research associate at the Pew Research Center and one of the study’s authors. However, the broad support across partisan lines for Francis — the pontiff has a net favorability rating of 89 percent and 90 percent among Democrats and Republicans, respectively — raises the question of how his personal popularity could shift opinions on the issue. “It’s something we’ll have to keep an eye on as people become more familiar with what’s in the encyclical,” Martinez said.

The pope’s emphasis on the issue will undoubtedly prompt soul-searching for some traditional Catholics. “People who have long grown accustomed to calling themselves good Catholics are going to be discomfited by this encyclical,” said the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at Boston College. “It shows that to be ‘a good Catholic’ is more complex than being against same-sex marriage and abortion.”

It’s already clear that the encyclical is proving uncomfortable for some prominent U.S. Catholic conservatives. Most notable among these figures is Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who objected to the pope’s engagement with the issue in the first place. “The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we’re good at, which is theology and morality,” Santorum told a Philadelphia radio station earlier this month. The majority of Republicans in Congress reject the idea of man-made climate change and have politically opposed measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Santorum: a worshipper of capitalism, like his fellow Repubs.

Despite the public heel-digging by figures like Santorum, there is some precedent to suggest that the pope’s encyclical could help catalyze a shift in Catholic opinions on the issue, according to Portier, who pointed to John Paul II’s encyclical about capital punishment. The 1995 letter, known as “Evangelium Vitae” (“Gospel of Life”) can be traced as a source of the significant drop in U.S. Catholic support for the death penalty from 70 percent or more in the 1990s to just 53 percent in 2015.

However, even if the encyclical is successful in swaying public opinion about climate change, there will likely still be a significant gap between the Catholic flock’s take on the issue and that of the church’s hierarchy. “American bishops are going to have to play catch-up,” said Bretzke. “There’s going to be a disconnect between some of the leadership of the church and the people in the pews.”

Where culture wars around abortion, artificial contraception and same-sex marriage once dominated the church’s social agenda, Francis has chosen to instead emphasize climate change and broader issues of poverty and inequality — a move that has been met with some resistance from the traditionally conservative church leadership. Most current American Catholic bishops were appointed and influenced by Francis’ predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, both of whom took far more conservative approaches — in public — to social issues than the current pontiff.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been slow to adopt Francis’ social agenda, highlighted most recently by last week’s conference of the body in St. Louis, when only 40 out of 250 bishops at the meeting attended a workshop on the climate change encyclical. “Climate change isn’t the sort of thing [bishops] would have learned in the seminary or through their course of study or basic administration,” said Bretzke. “If only 40 found it worth their time to attend, that does say something.”

The conference also unveiled its priorities for 2017 to 2020, a list that the New York Times called“essentially a replay of its pre-Francis agenda,” with its focus on opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. However, some bishops openly voiced their objections to the agenda, arguing that poverty needed to be a top priority. Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis said that the list failed to reflect “the newness” and “dynamism” promoted by Francis, urging that the priorities be reworked “so it’s clear that we take him seriously and we’re accepting his pastoral guidance,” the Times reported.

This response is an encouraging one, said Bretzke, who argued that the release of the encyclical will only embolden such voices and give them greater credibility. “This is the Francis effect, because before they never would have said this publicly.”

[printfriendly]

Remember: All captions and pullquotes are furnished by the editors, NOT the author(s).

What is $5 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

BOOKS | Review of Paul L. Williams Book “Operation Gladio”

By Global Research News | The Washington Book Review

Review by Arif Jamal

After the Second World War ended, The Vatican, the CIA, the ex-Nazis, and the Sicilian/American Mafia forged an alliance to fight the Cold War against the former Soviet Union and the rising pro-Soviet governments in Europe and the rest of the world.

In a new book, Paul L. Williams offers new and disturbing evidence to expose what he calls the unholy alliance. Operation Gladio is likely to be a controversial book and may even be contested by several quarters. However, it would be difficult to reject the evidence author Paul L. Williams has provided.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he story started as early as 1942 with the formation of the Vatican Bank. The same year ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) recruited Lucky Luciano, a pre-eminent drug lord. The Swiss director of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Allen Dulles came to the conclusion, “We’re fighting the wrong enemy.” Schutzstaffel (SS) sent Dulles a message through the Vatican that the Nazi government wanted to establish a separate peace with the United States; they wanted to fight the Soviets. Dulles met Prince Max von Hohenlohe in Bern. Hohenlohe found Dulles in agreement with him. Later, Dulles also met other Nazi officials to forge the new alliance. Chief of Special Intelligence for the OSS in China Col. Paul E Helliwell thought of another unholy alliance between the US intelligence community and organized crime groups. Consequently, the US intelligence agencies got drug lord Lucky Luciano released from jail, allowed him to build his narcotics empire, and simply watched the flow of drugs into the largely black ghettos of New York and Washington. The unholy alliance of the American spies and criminals was replicated everywhere, from Laos and Burma to Marseilles and Panama.

After Richard Nixon became president in 1969, the strategy of tension gained more impetus. National Adviser Henry Kissinger issued orders to Licio Gelli to carry out terror attacks and coup attempts. The United States and the Vatican channeled millions of dollars for these operations. Most of the money was raised in questionable ways. The first major attack in Europe took place on December 12, 1969 when a bomb went off in the lobby of Banca Nazionale Dell’ Agricoltura in Milan, Italy. Seventeen people died in the explosion. Within an hour, three bombs exploded in Rome. According to official figures, 14,591 acts of violence with a political motivation took place between January 1, 1969 and December 31, 1987. In these terror attacks, 491 people died and 1,181 were injured. A large number of terror attacks took place in other European countries from 1965 to 1981. After a series of assassination attempts to kill French President De Gaulle failed, he denounced “the secret warfare of the Pentagon” and expelled the European headquarters of NATO.

In Latin America, the CIA and the Vatican launched Operation Condor as the Latin American version of the Operation Gladio. The label was applied very liberally by the US intelligence agencies that “any government risked being so labeled if it advocated nationalization of private industry (particularly foreign-owned corporations), radical land reform, autarkic trade policies, acceptance of soviet aid, or an ‘anti-American’ foreign policy.” The CIA and the Vatican started Operation Condor in the early 1970s when Opus Dei elicited support from Chilean bishops for the overthrow of the government of President Allende. The Catholic group was closely working with the CIA-funded organizations such as the Fatherland and Liberty, which was later turned into the dreaded Chilean secret police. “In 1971, the CIA began shelling out millions to the Chilean Institute for General Studies (IGS), an Opus Dei think tank, for the planning of the revolution.” Many members of the IGS joined the government after the coup. Hernan Cubillos became the foreign minister. He was the founder of Que Pasa, an OPUS Dei magazine, and publisher of El Mercurio, the largest newspaper in Santiago which was subsidized by the CIA.

Williams shows that the Vatican was fully involved in Operation Condor. The Pope was fully behind the purging of the left wing clerics; leaders of the military junta were devout Catholics. The Vatican did not abandon General Pinochet even when he was arrested in Britain for the murder of thousands of Chileans. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano wrote to the British government on behalf of the Pope to demand his release. Under Pinochet, hundreds of thousands Chileans had disappeared while more than four thousands had died. More than fifty thousand Chileans were tortured in the name of Catholic god. CIA’s dirty war was perpetuated in many Latin American countries with the help and blessing of the Vatican.

Williams quotes FBI whistle blower Sibel Edmonds who said,

“Between 1996 and 2002, we, the United States, planned, financed, and helped execute every major terrorist incident by Chechen rebels (and the Mujahideen) against Russia. Between 1996 and 20002, we, the United States, planned, financed, and helped execute every single uprising and terror related scheme in Xinjiang (aka East Turkistan and Uyhurstan). Between 1996 and 2002, we, the United States, planned and carried out at least two assassination schemes against pro-Russian officials in Azerbaijan.”

Operation Gladio is a highly well-researched book with some 1,100 endnotes and footnotes. This work is highly rich in details. It is an estimable scholarly and intellectual accomplishment which is unrivaled. His scholarly work fills a major lacuna in the study of US foreign policy left by scholars such as Alfred McCoy, Peter Dale Scot, Martin A. Lee, Dale Yallop, and Sibel Edmonds.

Reviewed by Arif Jamal

Paul L. Williams is a journalist and author of The Vatican Exposed, Crescent Moon Rising, The Day of Islam, Osama’s revenge, and The Al-Qaeda Connection. He has written articles for The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Counter-Terrorist, NewsMax, and National Review. He is the winner of three first-place Keystone Press Awards for journalism. He has also served as a consultant for the FBI and as an adjunct professor of Humanities at the University of Scranton and Wilkes University.

[printfriendly]

Remember: All captions and pullquotes are furnished by the editors, NOT the author(s).

What is $5 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

Francis: A True Pope for all Seasons?

Communist crucifix for Pope Francis who lashes out at capitalism on Bolivia tour

‘Not to share wealth with poor is to steal’: Pope slams capitalism as ‘new tyranny’

When Religion and Progress Collide

Pope Francis’ forthcoming clash with global capitalism

1. Capitalism is threatening the survival of human civilization

2. Capitalism is destroying nonrenewable resources for personal gain

3. Capitalism has lost its ethical code, has no moral compass

4. Capitalists worship the golden calf of a money god

5. Capitalists pursuit of personal wealth destroys the common good

6. Capitalism has no respect for Earth’s natural environment

7. Capitalists only see the working class as consumers and machine tools

8. Capitalism is killing our planet, our civilization and the people

Operation Gladio: The Untold Story of the Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia