AND THE THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND.
*** REVELATION 14:9
Showing posts with label EVANGELII GAUDIUM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EVANGELII GAUDIUM. Show all posts
WASHINGTON — “As your shepherds, your fear echoes in our hearts and we make your pain our own. Count on the commitment of all of us to stand with you in this challenging hour,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, addressing the surge in immigration enforcement actions.
He offered a reflection on behalf of the bishops of the U.S. and acknowledged that while law enforcement actions to preserve order and ensure community security are necessary for the common good, we cannot turn a deaf ear to the anxiety and fear in communities.
Archbishop Broglio’s reflection follows:
Just before the opening of the special assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, it seems appropriate to give voice to a profound concern in the hearts of the Shepherds of the Church in our Country.
When he spoke to the young people of Chicago this past weekend, Pope Leo XIV reminded us that at the heart of the Christian faith is an invitation to share in the communion of life and love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the first community and based completely on love. The Holy Father also challenged us to be a sign of hope by making the world a better place.
Considering Pope Leo’s message, no one can turn a deaf ear to the palpable cries of anxiety and fear heard in communities throughout the country in the wake of a surge in immigration enforcement actions.
Social Entrepreneur and Human Rights Techie. Lives in Quito
Posted: 11/17/2014 2:02 pm EST Updated: 11/17/2014 2:02 pm EST
Next week 40 Global Shapers of the World Economic Forum will travel to the Vatican from 5 continents to hold a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. This meeting aims to respond to challenge Pope Francis poses: How do we create a new global mindset to overcome social and economic exclusion?
Ever since I was honored with an invitation to join this gathering in Rome, I've been wondering: Why invite 40 millennials and not the top 40 CEOs? What sort of insight can we offer that the world's foremost academics on social inclusion couldn't? How can a heterogeneous group with diverse religious beliefs help shape a debate hosted at the center of the Catholic world?
The Internet as a gift of God.
I found part of the answer online. Pope Francis understood from early in his tenure the power of social media and the internet. In fact, writing about communications and global understanding, Pope Francis calls the internet a gift from god. The English-language Pontifex twitter account has almost 5 million followers, the PopeApp has more than over 200,000 downloads and his entire agenda is available and streamable for the world to see. Given this interest in the possibilities the web can offer to his pastoral concern for humanity, conferring with digital natives is a smart move. Among the 40 participants, many are already using technology to enhance democratic participation, document and visualize human rights information oramplifying the voice of the underheard through mobile.
Real change will bring about some disruption -- which Gen Y's love.
Another hint about why Pope Francis is interested in this meeting can be found in the Evangelii Gaudium, a document Pope Francis issued in 2013 outlining his views on church reform. In it, Pope Francis goes beyond suggesting business people become more charitable. In fact, he questions the notion of Milton Friedman that "the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits." A section dedicated to the economy and distribution of income indicates:
Business is -- in fact -- a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life.
The challenge of overcoming socio-economic exclusion is too large for governments, charities, non-profits and agencies to tackle alone. The private sector has played a crucial role in catalyzing important leaps in health, engineering, communications and technology. Knowing this, Pope Francis suggests it is time to review the purpose of business and rethink models of growth.
This concept is not new to millennials -- a generation that brings us professionals who make career decisions based on meaning before salaries. In engaging Gen Y leaders, Pope Francis finds natural allies for creating a new global mindset around business. Thousands of companies that tend to appeal to the next great generation are enterprises with a social mission. Many of them have joined an international movement of B Corporations -- companies that redefine business success by making a public and often statutory commitment to their social mission. This way, directors and shareholders are not forced to abandon their altruistic objectives when times get tough. The long-term vision is to forever change the raison-d'être of business in society. This January at Davos, Pope Francis nudged the business community in this direction:
I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it.
Empathy + risk-taking = change
Now, switching to a global mentality where businesses have a mission beyond pleasing shareholders requires a significant leap. This is where Pope Francis has identified the potential of focusing on younger leaders -- having a shorter trajectory, emerging leaders have less to lose and therefore a more open mind about re-engineering the way the private sector is structured. In his 2013 manifesto, Pope Francis reminds his followers,
Young people call us to renewed and expansive hope, for they represent new directions for humanity and open us up to the future, lest we cling to a nostalgia for structures and customs which are no longer life-giving in today's world.
Given the right opportunities, young people are more susceptible to developing deep empathy and stimulate innovation. The Catholic Church, in particular, Jesuits, have leveraged this feature of youth capacity for empathy with impressive results.
In Latin America, TECHO, a youth-led non-profit dedicated to alleviating poverty in urban slums, was founded as a Jesuit initiative. The impact speaks for itself: over 600,000 young volunteers from all faiths have been mobilized in 19 countries to build over 120,000 transitional homes for those at the base of the pyramid. The homes are built entirely by young volunteers and families, who later engage in community development initiatives to give continuity to the projects.
Likewise, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has offered legal aid to 600,000 refugees in dozens of countries so they can unlock the key to inclusion in their home countries: legal documentation. In giving young lawyers the chance to understand the harsh reality of trying to make a living as a non-citizen, JRS is changing mentalities and the course of their careers forever.
Unlikely allies Under Pope Francis´s leadership, the Catholic church has gained more non-Catholic fans than ever. Pope Francis understands the challenge. Speaking about young people in the Evangelii Gaudium, he admits
[A]s adults, we find it hard to listen patiently to them, to appreciate their concerns and demands and to speak to them in a language they can understand.
His statements about evolution and creation, his open support for the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church and his challenging world leaders on wealth distribution demonstrate leadership that is willing to question traditional interpretations of doctrine and focus on action. Without appealing to religious piety, millennials -- in our search for a meaningful life and career -- may bePope Francis' unlikely allies in this quest for developing a new global mindset.
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM
OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL
IN TODAY’S WORLD
(CNN) – Pope Francis: Successor to St. Peter ... the people's pontiff ... Marxist?
That's what conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh suggests, calling the Pope's latest document "pure Marxism."
Limbaugh blasted the pontiff on Wednesday, a day after Francis released "Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel), a 50,000-word statement that calls for church reform and castigates elements of modern capitalism.
Limbaugh's segment, now online and entitled "It's Sad How Wrong Pope Francis Is (Unless It's a Deliberate Mistranslation By Leftists)," takes direct aim at the pope's economic views, calling them "dramatically, embarrassingly, puzzlingly wrong."
The Vatican issued the English translation of "Evangelii," which is known officially as an apostolic exhortation and unofficially as a pep talk to the worlds 1.5 billion Catholics.
Francis – the first pope ever to hail from Latin America, where he worked on behalf of the poor in his native Argentina – warned in "Evangelii" that the "idolatry of money" would lead to a "new tyranny."
The Pope also blasted "trickle-down economics," saying the theory "expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power."
The Pope's critique of capitalism thrilled many liberal Catholics, who have long called on church leaders to spend more time and energy on protecting the poor from economic inequalities.
But Limbaugh, whose program is estimated to reach 15 million listeners, called the Pope's comments "sad" and "unbelievable."
"It's sad because this pope makes it very clear he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism and so forth."
In fact, Argentina was a battlefield between leftist socialists and right-wing security forces during much of Francis' early career in the country, where he was a Jesuit priest and later archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Limbaugh, who is not Catholic, said he admires the faith "profoundly." He admired Pope Francis as well, "up until this," Limbaugh said.
The talk show host also said that he has made numerous visits to the Vatican, which he said "wouldn't exist without tons of money."
"But regardless, what this is, somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him," Limbaugh added. "This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope."
Limbaugh took particular issue with the Pope's criticism of the "culture of prosperity," which the pontiff called a "mere spectacle" for the many people who can't afford to participate.
"This is almost a statement about who should control financial markets," Limbaugh said. "He says that the global economy needs government control."
"I'm not Catholic, but I know enough to know that this would have been unthinkable for a pope to believe or say just a few years ago," Limbaugh continued.
In fact, Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, now pope emeritus, could be just as strong a critic of capitalism. In 2009, Benedict, in an official church document calledan encyclical, said there was an urgent need for "a political, juridical and economic order" that would "manage the global economy."
As Limbaugh notes, Benedict's predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, was a noted foe of communism, after living under its oppressions in his native Poland. But even John Paul thought that unregulated capitalism could have negative consequences.
In "Evangelii," Francis called for more of a spiritual and ethical revolution than a regulatory one.
"I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: `Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs,'" said Francis, quoting the fifth-century St. John Chrysostom.
Liberal Catholics defended Pope Francis on Monday, calling on Limbaugh to apologize and retract his remarks.
"To call the Holy Father a proponent 'pure Marxism' is both mean-spirited and naive," said Christopher Hale of the Washington-based Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. "Francis's critique of unrestrained capitalism is in line with the Church's social teaching."
Limbaugh is not the only conservative commentator to take issue with the Pope's views on capitalism.
“I go to church to save my soul," said Fox News' Stuart Varney, who is an Episcopalian. "It’s got nothing to do with my vote. Pope Francis has linked the two. He has offered direct criticism of a specific political system. He has characterized negatively that system. I think he wants to influence my politics.”
It doesn't sound like the criticism is slowing Francis down, however. He's started sending a Vatican contingent, including the Papal Swiss Guards, into Rome to deliver food and charity.
This week, Pope Francis released a new document called the "Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel). His first major document has captured the attention of Vatican watchers, who describe a vision statement of what Francis sees for the future of the Catholic Church.
ARUN RATH: Once again, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR West. I'm Arun Rath.
If you've ever been to the Vatican, the opulence is staggering. It couldn't be a greater contrast to Pope Francis who assumed the papacy just eight months ago. Before he became Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio crusaded for the poor and made a point of living a modest lifestyle. From day one, it was obvious this was a different kind of pope.
He lives in a simple guesthouse at the Vatican. He prefers a Ford Focus over a Mercedes limo. And he said that the church was too obsessed with issues like gay marriage and abortion and must be more active in helping the poor.
This week, Pope Francis put his vision for the future in writing with a document called "The Joy of the Gospel."
John Allen is senior correspondent at the National Catholic Reporter, and he's been covering the Vatican for nearly two decades. He says "The Joy of the Gospel" is a type of papal document called an apostolic exhortation. But this one is a bit different.
JOHN ALLEN: I've seen a lot of these apostolic exhortations come and go. This is the first one I can think of that has become a global sensation. And I think it's because this isn't just a set of minutes about a meeting, but it really is a very personal vision statement from Pope Francis about the kind of church he wants Catholicism to be in the early 21st century.
: And even though it doesn't set doctrine as such, I imagine that nothing that the pope writes is unimportant.
Certainly nothing the pope writes is unimportant. Now, there actually are doctrinal points in this document. I mean, for one thing, he talks about the need for a healthy decentralization in the church, and in particular, with regard to the power of the Vatican. But I think the bigger picture here is this is a kind of Magna Carta from Pope Francis about what he wants Catholicism to be in his time, and it's resonating in remarkable ways around the world.
Beyond this decentralization, what is this vision that the pope is laying out in this document?
I actually call this Francis' "I Have a Dream" speech in my piece for the National Catholic Reporter because he opens with a dream. He says: I dream of a church that is more focused on reaching out rather than collapsing in on itself and a church that is more merciful. That is, rather than on focusing on what he calls rules that make us harsh judges, he wants a church that is more tolerant and compassionate.
ALLEN: And I think everything else in the document, including his very strong language about the need for the church to stand on the side of the poor, all of that flows out of those two core pillars of his vision - a missionary and a merciful church.
: There isn't much made about some of the more what might be termed liberal aspects of this document, but there are other ways in which the pope is not giving any ground either.
ALLEN: No. That's absolutely right. On two of the most hot-button questions in Catholic life, that is the ordination of women as priests and church teaching on abortion, Francis made it abundantly clear in this document - as he has on other occasions - that there's not going to be any change. So it's not that everything is up for grabs. In that sense, I think the right way to read Francis, probably, is that he is the pope of the Catholic middle. He's not pursuing the radical program of the left, but he's certainly not the kind of traditionalist that would win hearts and minds on the right.
: Do you have the sense that this document is going to be a defining milestone, or can things sort of go back to business as normal with the church now?
ALLEN: The watershed moment that this document represents is there can no longer be debate about whether Francis is a reforming pope. It is now obvious that he is, and we have a comprehensive statement of the kind of reform that he wants. And the drama now is no longer going to be what kind of pope Francis aspires to be. The drama now is can he pull it off?
: John Allen is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. John, thank you so much.
In a new declaration, the pope warns that the ‘culture of prosperity deadens us,’ taking aim at free market capitalists and consumers alike.
“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?”
I guess Pope Francis doesn’t watch Bloomberg TV.
This quote is one of the many zingers Pope Francis aims at global capitalism in his just-issued Apostolic Exhortation (here’s the PDF version)
The economic sections were a small component—items 54-60 of a 106-item, 86-page document. But they were noteworthy for injecting the Vatican into the raging global debate about inequality. And they are likely to delight many followers and alarm many others who generally look to the Vatican for guidance on spiritual and policy matters. Earlier this month, Sarah Palin kicked up a storm when she expressed concern about some of Pope Francis’s views on a range of issues—from poverty to the treatment of gays. “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me,” she told CNN. I wonder what she’s thinking now that Francis has unleashed a broadside at supply-siders, defenders of the prerogatives of finance, and at consumers in general.
Francis, of course, hails from Latin America, the wellspring of the radical, feared ‘Liberation Theology’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s. While no leveler, Francis is allergic to ostentation. He doesn’t like the imperial trappings of the office. He has no entourage, and moved into rooms at the Casa Santa Maria, the Vatican hotel, instead of occupying the large papal penthouse at the Apostolic Palace. Not for him the Red Prada slippers of his predecessor. His church has cracked down on showy displays of wealth. This fall, he suspended of the Bishop of Limburg, who spent millions of Euros renovating his residence.
Francis has been relentless in talking about the church’s mission and need to serve the poor. Poverty and inequality used to be accepted as an order imposed by God. Today, Francis forthrightly pinned the blame on humans. The global economy has grown in every year since 1944 except one—2009. Broadly speaking, living standards are rising around the world, and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of abject poverty. Yet there are glaring, often violent deficiencies in the system.
Popes have never been big fans of Darwinism. This Pope takes direct aim at economic Darwinism. “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” he wrote. Francis has little use for those who argue that cutting taxes for the rich helps the poor. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” he said in a mini-rant that wouldn’t be out-of-place on MSNBC. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
Time and again, he goes after the malign influence of the theology of free-market, financial, consumer-based capitalism. As for money, “we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.” There are too many worshippers of Mammon among us. “The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex. 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”
That’s old school. But Francis also engages in the sort of critique of modern finance that has emerged in the slew of post-crisis books: the financial industry captures government, redirects policies and resources to benefit itself at the expense of everybody else—with toxic results. “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” he writes. “This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.” He complains about excessive debt and “self-serving tax evasion” among the wealthy. And even as they rig the system, those at the top often “content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their trouble.” He calls for reforms that make finance subservient to industry and for the redistribution of wealth. “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor.”
As I read this, I imagined a fresco depicting the economic section of the document. In the central panel, Sen. Elizabeth Warren whispers into the ear of the Pope as Mitt Romney and hedge fund managers are flayed. To one side, a group of union organizers rip up a copy of the Republican Party’s 2012 platform. In one corner, a pile of Apple iPads and Google glasses are torched in a bonfire. In another, makers, personified by the small, suited figure of Paul Ryan beg forgiveness from a gallery of takers, which include bedraggled peasants with the faces of Bernie Sanders, Noam Chomsky, and Che Guevara. And Alan Greenspan, clutching a copy of Atlas Shrugged, boils in a bath of molten gold.
It’s not just financiers who come in for censure. Consumers take it on the chin, too. Gadgets, technology, and stuff, contrary to what you read in advertisements, don’t make us happier or better people. “The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”
It’s a message we should all keep in mind—Catholic or not—as we flood the malls in search of Black Friday deals.
