Pope Francis: "Huge Salaries and Bonuses were Symptoms of an Economy Based on Greed and Inequality"

[Chrom]

Last edited Fri Jan 3, 2014, 02:04 PM - Edit history (1)

"Everyone must be committed to building a society that is truly just and caring,"




I just can't help loving this new pope



Pope Francis made an impassioned New Year's peace address on Wednesday, saying the heart of humanity seemed to have gone astray and too many people were still indifferent to war, violence and injustice. The pontiff, who took his papal name from St Francis of Assisi, the saint most associated with peace, urged the world to listen to the "cry for peace" from suffering peoples.

"What on earth is happening in the hearts of men? What on earth is happening in the heart of humanity?" he said to tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square on the day the Roman Catholic Church celebrates its World Day of Peace. "It's time to stop!" he said, departing from his prepared text.

"Everyone must be committed to building a society that is truly just and caring," he told the crowd on Wednesday, acknowledging the many peace banners and blue balloons held aloft. In a message for the World Day of Peace sent to world leaders last month, Francis said that huge salaries and bonuses were symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/01/us-pope-idUSBREA0008420140101


I think this poster sums up the situation best:

BarackTheVote (617 posts)
82. The Pope took away the legitimacy of every Catholic Tea Bagger


Santorum, O'Reiley, numerous other RW shills proclaiming their Catholicism up down and sideways have been effectively stymied. The Pope is giving a really good example of what a Christian should be, and it ain't them. People in the pulpits will take notice. My grandma, a life-long Republican, who had been watching Fox News since the beginning, turned the channel off completely after Bill O made a disparaging comment about Pope Benedict. She went on to vote for President Obama. This Pope-bashing Fox has been doing, this "with all due respect, HOLINESS" song and dance--it won't play well. It will turn off A LOT of Catholics. Francis has hurt the religious right in this country badly, and I think he'll continue to do so.

[pscot]

1. Good post

Doing the Lord's work.

[reformist2]

2. Libs should seriously take pause before attacking a pope who is attacking capitalism.

I mean, when you attack what capitalists pay themselves, you are putting the very essence of capitalism in the crosshairs.

What this pope is doing is revolutionary - not because his ideas are new, but because he has billions of people listening to him.

[Vashta Nerada]

15. Really?

So we should just ignore his stance on gay marriage, women serving in higher positions in the church, women getting access to birth control and rights over their own bodies, and the pedophile cover-ups?

He says some stuff about capitalism (without actually doing anything) and we're supposed to follow him?

What does it mean to be liberal again?

[Chrom]

3. coincidentally, in today's news....

£2m: average pay award for JP Morgan's top staff in 2012 revealed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4265151

[Chrom]

4. Home Depot Founder 'our rich people are nicer than other rich people'

I don't think so...it's not real nice to take everything for yourselves at the expense of other peoples lives...people who actually need money to survive....

The Shocking Redistribution of Wealth in the Past Five Years
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024257660

[BobUp]

5. Is it too late?

How do we turn this ineqaulity around? What can we do on a personal level? Who can we boycott and endorse?

[Chrom]

7. no, it's not too late, but I have no idea what to do

and I have dealt with this on a personal level...

What do we do when these people cannot be shamed?

They refuse to use logic,

All they know is me me mine mine mine like a three year old...

only they have all the money, power and the airwaves

What do you do when your toddler suddenly has power over you.....?

We should AT LEAST be able to outsmart them, and yet, they are still winning....

[BobUp]

11. Politics turned upside down recently

with the courts saying that money = free speech, that was wrong. <citizens united>

Bombarding the airways like the CONS and Kochs did in my state, it sucked.

Union busters keep putting the middle class and poor working people further behind, how to make them stop that?

I'd like to see a movement similar to OWS, but demonstrating on a grand scale like citizens did during the Vietnam era against the war. That would take a person who has political power, someone everyone knows, but would need to be bigger than the Million Man March, much bigger, it would be the only way it would garner attention nationwide. Fight for a cause, where everyone is on board. Where to find such a person? A Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, possibly Howard Dean, Maxine Waters, or someone you'd think would drop their political career to go to bat for citizens and not corporate America.

I would think that if enough ordinary, everyday hard working people get fed up enough from being stepped upon, people might start to begin to organize, but that might be a lengthy struggle. May take years and years to turn things around.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Message to Democratic leaders:

"Everyone must be committed to building a society that is truly just and caring,"

The U.S. has a mandate to do just that based on the Fourteenth Amendment.

[Chrom]

9. it's kinda odd that we don't feel that from any of our 'leaders'

If they are in Congress and they don't feel that way, well what the heck are they doing there anyway?

It's called "public service", not 'private enrichment'.

We really need to demand more from our public servants.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. We need to expand the concept of "equality" that exists in our millionaire leader's minds.

Equality does not mean separate but equal. And that, I fear, is where the Democrat's policy making is taking us. They have this vision that I believe is over thirty years old. It just looks like to me that Democrats try to secure their districts with promises of better schools and rehabilitation of downtown areas. What they're doing is a good thing, but the long-term prognosis for these areas are limited if the poorist residents never feel like they get the tools they need to move out of these communities to seek better job opportunities. Once they do make that next level, they can go back to their hometowns and revitalize it on their own. But this mobility gets harder when the places they need to be for those better jobs have locked them out with land rezonings that don't provide them with any affordable housing.

So, you see, the concept of "equality" should be expanded. Instead of concentrating exclusively on shoring up Democratic strongholds, Democrats need to think along the lines of expanding their base into Republican communities. Because, I can tell you from living in one of those kind of places, that there is a lot here that can be challenged in the court system. Why is it important to fight inequality in the courtroom? Because any group that routinely skirts the law gets a feeling of entitlement. They create for themselves a way of life that they feel they have a right to defend by any crooked way they can get away with. And it is their routine indiscretions that is a major cause of inequality in our society.

[Chrom]

13. +1000000

n/t

[indepat]

8. Dear Pope Francis: Please shoot a few more rockets up the asses of these Catholic tea baggers and

all who promote greed and inequality although professing to love of Jesus.

[Chrom]

10. +100000

n/t

[Chrom]

14. Thanks for the recs!

n/t