Pope: Market capitalism has failed in pandemic, needs reform

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has proven that the “magic theories” of market capitalism have failed and that the world needs a new type of politics that promotes dialogue and solidarity and rejects war at all costs.

Francis on Sunday laid out his vision for a post-COVID world by uniting the core elements of his social teachings into a new encyclical aimed at inspiring a revived sense of the human family. “Fratelli Tutti” (Brothers All) was released on the feast day of his namesake, the peace-loving St. Francis of Assisi.

The document draws its inspiration from the teachings of St. Francis and the pope’s previous preaching on the injustices of the global economy and its destruction of the planet and pairs them with his call for greater human solidarity to confront the “dark clouds over a closed world."

In the encyclical, Francis rejected even the Catholic Church’s own doctrine justifying war as a means of legitimate defense, saying it had been too broadly applied over the centuries and was no longer viable.

“It is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war,’" Francis wrote in the most controversial new element of the encyclical.

Francis had started writing the encyclical, the third of his pontificate, before the coronavirus struck and its bleak diagnosis of a human family falling apart goes far beyond the problems posed by the outbreak. He said the pandemic, however, had confirmed his belief that current political and economic institutions must be reformed to address the legitimate needs of the people most harmed by the coronavirus.

“Aside from the differing ways that various countries responded to the crisis, their inability to work together became quite evident,” Francis wrote. “Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality."

He cited the grave loss of millions of jobs as a result of the virus as evidence of the need for politicians to listen to popular movements, unions and marginalized groups and to craft more just social and economic policies.

“The fragility of world systems in the face of the pandemic has demonstrated that not everything can be resolved by market freedom,” he wrote. “It is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at ‘promoting an economy that favours productive diversity and business creativity’ and makes it possible for jobs to be created, and not cut.”
Francis also rejected “trickle-down” economic theory as he did in the first major mission statement of his papacy, the 2013 Evangelii Gaudium, (The Joy of the Gospel), saying it simply doesn’t achieve what it claims.

“Neo-liberalism simply reproduces itself by resorting to magic theories of ‘spillover’ or ‘trickle’ — without using the name — as the only solution to societal problems,” he wrote. “There is little appreciation of the fact that the alleged ‘spillover’ does not resolve the inequality that gives rise to new forms of violence threatening the fabric of society.”

Francis’ English-language biographer, Austen Ivereigh, said with its two key predecessors, the new encyclical amounts to the final part of a triptych of papal teachings and may well be the last of the pontificate.

“There is little doubt that these three documents ... will be considered the teaching backbone of the Francis era,” Ivereigh wrote in Commonweal magazine.

Francis made clear the text had wide circulation, printing the encyclical in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano and distributing it free in St. Peter's Square on Sunday to mark the resumption of printed editions following a hiatus during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Much of the new encyclical repeats Francis’ well-known preaching about the need to welcome and value migrants and his rejection of the nationalistic, isolationist policies of many of today’s political leaders.

He dedicated an entire chapter to the parable of the Good Samaritan, saying its lesson of charity, kindness and looking out for strangers was “the basic decision we need to make in order to rebuild our wounded world.”

“That a theme so ancient is spoken with such urgency now is because Pope Francis fears a detachment from the view that we are all really responsible for all, all related to all, all entitled to a just share of what has been given for the good of all," said Anna Rowlands, professor of Catholic social thought at Britain's University of Durham, who was on hand to present the encyclical Sunday at the Vatican.

Francis enshrined in the encyclical his previous rejection of both the nuclear arms race and the death penalty, which he said was “inadmissible” in all cases.

Francis' call for greater “human fraternity," particularly to promote peace, is derived from his 2019 joint appeal with the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islam. Their “Human Fraternity” document established the relationship between Catholics and Muslims as brothers, with a common mission to promote peace.

The fact the he has now integrated that Catholic-Muslim document into an encyclical is significant, given Francis' conservative critics had already blasted the “Human Fraternity" document as heretical, given it stated that God had willed the “pluralism and diversity of religions."

Vatican encyclicals are the most authoritative form of papal teaching and they traditionally take their titles from the first two words of the document. In this case, “Fratelli Tutti” is a quote from the “Admonitions,” the guidelines penned by St. Francis in the 13th century.

The title of the encyclical had sparked controversy in the English-speaking world, with critics noting that a straight translation of the word “fratelli” (brothers) excludes women. The Vatican has insisted that the plural form of the word “fratelli” is gender-inclusive.

Francis’ decision to sign the document in Assisi, where he travelled on Saturday, and release it on the saint’s feast day is yet further evidence of the outsized influence St. Francis has had on the papacy of the Jesuit pope.

Francis is the first pope to name himself after the mendicant friar, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and service to the poor.

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press 1 day ago

Vatican releases financial, budget data amid scandal

ROME (AP) — The Vatican released a detailed budget, balance sheet and earning statement for the first time Thursday as it sought to reassure Catholics that it's serious about cleaning up its financial act following a corruption scandal that has exposed shoddy fiscal management.

The data marked the first time since 2016 that the Vatican has released any information about its finances, despite pledges by Pope Francis from the start of his pontificate in 2013 to be more transparent and accountable with the Holy See's money.

The data showed that the Vatican bureaucracy had narrowed its deficit to 11 million euros last year from 75 million euros in 2018, even taking into account a 25 million-euro drop in donations from dioceses and individuals alike.

But more than the earnings statement, the consolidated report provided the first-known publicly released information about the Vatican's net equity — estimated at 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) for the Holy See Curia, or bureaucracy. The Vatican's overall patrimony blooms to 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) when taking into account the cash-cow of the Vatican Museums, the Vatican bank and other sources of assets and funds.

The report also marked the first time the Vatican has made public how its operating budget is divided among the various Holy See offices, which serve as the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.

Astonishingly, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - in recent decades perhaps the best-known Vatican office because it processes all clergy sex abuse cases - operates on an annual budget of 3.36 million euros. That represents 1% of the Curia’s budget for its apostolic work, far less than what is budgeted for the Vatican's Apostolic Library or Archives.

The Congregation has long complained it has far too few people or resources to process the mountain of cases that have come to the Vatican in recent years - cases that have cost U.S. dioceses and religious orders more than $3 billion in legal settlements to victims of clergy abuse and fees.

The Vatican released the information ahead of the Sunday collection for Peter's Pence, the special extra donation Catholic faithful are asked to make once a year to support the pope's charitable works and to fund the operations of the Holy See.

“The faithful have the right to know how we use resources in the Holy See," the Vatican's finance minister, the Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, said in explaining the decision to release the detailed information for the first time.

In an interview with the Vatican's in-house media, Guerrero said the mission of the Holy See was not to make profit, but to serve the church. Deficits were to be expected, he said, but also the correct management of resources.

“It's possible that in some cases, the Holy See has been not only poorly counseled but also defrauded," he said, referring to the recent scandals. “I think we're learning from the errors or imprudent (decisions) of the past."

It was a reference to an ongoing Vatican corruption investigation that has already cost a half-dozen Holy See employees their jobs, including a powerful cardinal.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu. the longtime No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, was fired last week after Francis said he had evidence that the Italian embezzled 100,000 euros from the secretariat of state to fund a charity controlled by his brother.

Becciu has admitted he sent the money but denied wrongdoing, saying the funds were destined for his home diocese' charity, not his brother.

A bigger scandal dates from 2014, when the Vatican under Becciu entered into a real estate venture by investing over $200 million in a fund run by an Italian businessman. The deal gave the Holy See 45% of a luxury building in London’s Chelsea neighborhood.

The money came from the secretariat of state’s asset portfolio, which is funded in large part by the Peter’s Pence donations.

The Holy See decided in November 2018 to exit the investment fund, end its relationship with the businessman and to buy out the remainder of the building at 60 Sloane Ave. The buyout deal, however, cost the Holy See tens of millions of euros more in fees to middlemen, and sparked the Vatican investigation that has upended the Vatican for a year.

In part because of the scandal and the mismanagement of the secretariat of state’s own asset portfolio, Guerrero has wrested control of the funds and put them under the management of the Vatican’s central treasury office, known by its acronym, APSA. The same has been done for all other departments of the Curia.

“Centralizing (assets) will without doubt allow for greater transparency and more precise control," Guerrero said, while also allowing for a unified investment strategy that respects the Catholic Church's social doctrine and ethical norms.

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press 4 days ago

Trump has reportedly privately ridiculed religious leaders and spoken about religion with 'cynicism and contempt'

When President Trump speaks in private about religion, "many" of his comments are "marked by cynicism and contempt," reports The Atlantic.

Former aides described how they have "heard Trump ridicule conservative religious leaders, dismiss various faith groups with cartoonish stereotypes, and deride certain rites and doctrines held sacred by many of the Americans who constitute his base."

In one instance, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen told The Atlantic that in 2015, Trump enthusiastically showed him an article about a megachurch pastor trying to raise $60 million for a private jet; Trump reportedly said the pastor was "full of sh-t" and that "they're all hustlers."

Cohen also remembered that once, when Trump was told that his son was at a playdate with a Jewish girl, he said to Cohen, "Great. I'm going to lose another one of my kids to your people." And according to Cohen, Trump frequently mocked Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.

In another instance, a former adviser recalled showing Trump a video of a televangelist performing "faith healings," which Trump reportedly laughed at, saying, "Man, that's some racket." The report additionally quotes a recording of Trump meeting with religious figures in 2016 in which he reportedly admitted that "

I don't know the Bible as well as some of the other people" and joked about being taken aback when Mike Pence asked him to bow his head and pray.

"I said, 'Excuse me?’" Trump reportedly said. "I'm not used to it."

Former campaign official A.J. Delgado told The Atlantic that Trump is "not a religious guy," while former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res said, "I always assumed he was an atheist."

The White House told The Atlantic that Trump is "a champion for religious liberty" who is "also well known for joking and his terrific sense of humor, which he shares with people of all faiths." Read more at The Atlantic.

Reference: The Week: Brendan Morrow 6 days ago