Predictably, the neoliberal propaganda machine (aka “Hillary Press”)
has distorted the Pope's
recent remarks, bending them to their own
nefarious and partisan purposes. Since the address is published in
Spanish and Italian only, this will set the record straight for
those with a waning interest in objectivity.
It is true, the Pope
denounced walls built of fear and needless to say a U.S. audience would
interpret this as referring to the border with Mexico and hence as an
indirect attack on Trump.
But what the Pope actually denounced was the “divinization of money” which
was an “existential whip” which, as in Ancient Egypt, enslaves and
exhausts without mercy (un látigo existencial que, como en el Egipto
del Antiguo Testamento, esclaviza, roba la libertad, azota sin
misericordia). You know, like usurious college loans perhaps?
So how does money rule? It rules with the lash of fear, economic
violence and military oppression. (Con el látigo del miedo, de la
inequidad, de la violencia económica, social, cultural y militar que
engendra más y más violencia en una espiral descendente que parece no
acabar jamás). It is from that primary violence, the Pope said, that religious and narco-
terrorism are derived.
All tyranny, he says, operates by exploiting fears. Those who,
despite massacres, plunder, injustice and oppression, still hold on to
some rights are tempted by the false security of walls; walls which
enclose some and exclude others.
The Pope certainly denounced
xenophobia and indifference to the refugees fleeing the (US induced)
disaster in Syria, but his premise was the tyranny of Mammon and its
consequent “
globalization of indifference” which did not put economy at
the service of the people, which did not promote peace and justice and
which did not defend Mother Earth. (As in continuous military incursions around the world, mass incarceration of petty offenders, sub-subsistence jobs, inadequate health care, penurious retirement, ecocide, fracking, coal tar extracting and palm
oil deforestation.)
What is really choice is that at the outset, the Pope cited
Quadressimo Anno the 1933 encyclical in which then Pope Pius XI denounced the
economic dictatorship of international capital ("
dictadura económica
mundial que él llamó «imperialismo internacional del dinero». ) In fact
Pius XI was also very vigorous in his denunciation of the “idols of
Liberalism.” by which he meant exactly the economic policies pursued by
Hillary and Obama and all American administrations since Reagan.
Of course the slop and slosh that passes for journalism in England and
the U.S. would attempt to trivialize the Pope’s statements, rendering
them harmless to the evil the corporate press supports (global
capitalism sub nom. “free trade”) while abusing the Pope's remarks as a
foil for their own enemies.
The Church has always denounced liberal economics. It has always
insisted that people have a right economic security from the state as a
precondition to personal growth and freedom.
"Toda la doctrina social de la Iglesia y el magisterio de mis
antecesores se rebelan contra el ídolo-dinero que reina en lugar de
servir, tiraniza y aterroriza a la humanidad."
If anything, his remarks were directed against Hillary and the
arms-peddlers, money lenders, war-mongers and earth-destroyers she serves and supports
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