Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis: Against liberalism, critic of the IMF and foreign debt

[Catherina]

I posted this in GD but that was a mistake lol. It's not going to get any traction there but may interest some folks here.

This article is very badly written. You can tell it's written by a Spanish speaker but it still makes perfect sense. And the document can't possibly be called “Episcopal Conference of Argentina”, that sounds more like the authorship heading.

Against liberalism, critic of the IMF and foreign debt

By Carlos Burgueño
Ambito Financiero staff

Harsh critic of free-market liberalism, the IMF and adjustment policies, and defender of the debt restructuring processes, Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, never refused to define where he stands when it comes down to economics, even in the most difficult moments. Adept to the most classical conceptions of the Social Doctrine of the Church, he openly confronted adjustment policies during the 2001 crisis, and then, in 2011, he battled those same remedies when intended to solve debt problems in Europe.

Bergoglio took an active stance against liberal policies since his early years, but it became public in 2001 when Argentina went into a terminal crisis. In his sermons, he used to openly condemn the social situation, even with former President Fernando de la Rua sitting right in front of him and hearing his Sunday Mass.

It was in August 2001 when he submitted a document known as “Episcopal Conference of Argentina”, where the Church indicated its stance on the delicate situation the country was going through.

The document said that "some of the most serious social ills we suffer are a reflection of the raw liberalism.” Likewise, it indicated the State as “an instrument created to serve the common good, and to be the guarantor of equity and solidarity of the people.”

The communiqué also condemned the fact of not having created a “social network” in order to contain the expelled from the system. To conclude, it also remarked the existence of “two diseases: tax evasion and squandering of State funds, which are funds obtained with the sweat and sacrifice of the people.”

...

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/126381/against-liberalism-critic-of-the-imf-and-foreign-debt

"economic liberalism with no rules or controls whatsoever is one of the causes of the current economic crisis since it creates speculative financial markets, thus damaging the real economy, especially in weak countries." -- Archbishop Boroglio, now Pope Francis

[hedgehog]

1. If I'm reading this correctly, what he calls economic liberalism is what we call

free market economics or unregulated capitalism.

[Catherina]

2. Thanks. I think you're right

I'm not an economist so I could be wrong but that's how I take it too. I'm trying to find more but there doesn't seem to be much online and I hate slowly trudging through Spanish sites.

I don't think he's a Socialist but better a step in this direction than in the other one.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. I think he is in the same mold as the last few popes.

They have all been officially against the excesses of neoliberalism while focusing on their cultural agenda of repression of homosexuality and reproductive freedom. The situation in Argentina at the time was one of an almost complete collapse of the economy due to the stunning mismanagement of the neoliberal Chicago School technocrats. At that point in time nobody could be "for" neoliberalism in Argentina as it was a manifest failure.

[Catherina]

9. I think he's pretty much from the same mold, especially on doctrinal issues

Pope Benedict wrote an encyclical in which he advocated for a redistribution of wealth and railed against liberal economics but few paid much noticed. Maybe with Pope Francis it will be different because appearances do matter. And while writing an encyclical is a first step, you can't stop there. I hope he'll have the stamina to take it further.

He's not going to be liberal on matters of doctrine. No Pope will. About the only liberalization I expect during his papacy is allowing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of transmittable sexual diseases. I also expect noise on eliminating the World Bank, the IMF and other neoliberal organs and replacing them with an international bank that focuses more on non-profit assistance than for-profit enslavement.

But as far as doctrine goes, people can hang it up. The doctrine itself of the Catholic Church is never going to change.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I was reading it as Neoliberalism.

Here, from Wikipedia:

Neoliberalism is a political philosophy whose advocates support economic liberalization, free trade and open markets, privatization, deregulation, and decreasing the size of the public sector while increasing the role of the private sector in modern society.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. In most of the world, "liberalism" economically speaking.......

is what we call neoliberalism.

My attitude towards the new Pope's stances on economic matters is that talk is cheap. Let's see where we're at in a year or two. And yes, talk is where it starts, but most of the Popes in the last few decades have talked the talk, but only John XXIII truly walked the walk. OK that's just an impression, I could be wrong.

[TommyCelt]

12. socialist_n_TN, I see parallels...

Good Pope John was considered an intellectual/theological lightweight, and a "place maker Pope" after Pius XII's long reign. I don't need to go into his accomplishments; John XXIII is greatest modern Pope. Without question.

While I'm unsure of Francis' intellectual credentials, he is certainly doesn't have the chops of BXVI. He's old, so they don't want a long papacy. But Francis is already screwing around with a lot of time-honored traditions:

- Choosing a regnal name that by tradition is from the 'retired jersey' list
- Asking to be blessed by the faithful before bestowing his first blessing
- Eschewing use of the Pope-mobile (hasn't used it yet)
- Using his plain iron cross pendant instead of the opulent gold papal cross
- Just being a Jesuit in general

He's got baggage from the Dirty War, by virtue of his position in the Jesuits at the time. But AI (not the Church's favorite organization and vice versa) has cleared him of any wrongdoing there. If there were anything to truly bring to light, I believe they would have. I'm guessing the phantom charges here will eventually dissipate. I'm more concerned by the comments he made about homosexual marriage as Archbishop.

All of the pluses are essentially window dressing at this point. As you say, let us see where Pope Francis' papacy and the state of the Church is in a year or two. As a progressive Catholic, I am heartened by what I have seen at this early stage, however.

[TommyCelt]

13. CORRECTION

Pope Francis HAS used the Pope-mobile, but elected to have the bullet-proof glass taken down.

[Catherina]

15. Allegations about any collaboration have been dismissed as slander by Top HR officials

See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022540321


And thanks for your information that he took the bullet proof casing down. He used to walk around the most dangerous slums with no protection whatsoever too. I wish I'd kept the article but it stated that he was totally loved in the slums and would walk around freely, with no fear.

Being Pope is another matter. In his place I'd leave it up because of the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II but I understand his point too.

As a Catholic I'm heartened too, and more hopeful than you seem to be because of his record in Argentina, but like you said, only time will tell.

I was heartened too that after he became Archbishop, he instructed all his Bishops and priests to advise anyone who came forward with child abuse allegations against any priest to go straight to the police. I don't expect any movement on homosexual marriage but I do expect him to eventually allow condom use to help fight the spread of sexual diseases.

[msongs]

3. the world's wealthiest organization could sell some assets to feed the poor...but won't nt

[TommyCelt]

14. The world's wealthiest organization...

...feeds more of the world's poor than any other organization in the world. A few times over.

[HiPointDem]

21. the church hasn't sold assets? not what i hear.

[Catherina]

4. More: 'human rights are violated not only by terrorism... but also by unjust economic structures'

On this issue Cardinal Bergoglio does not shy from political activism. In 2009, he was scathing of what he saw as the Argentine Government's unjustified tolerance of an increase in poverty, saying that 'human rights are violated not only by terrorism, repression and murder, but also by unjust economic structures that cause great inequalities.' Pope Francis I, invoking the name of the founder of the Franciscan order, promises to be a deeply divisive political figure, but given the resonance of this message among masses of people worldwide, it might just be here the reconstitution of the Church's authority could be found.

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2013/03/14/Francis-I-The-economic-crusader.aspx

Extreme poverty is also a violation of human rights, says Argentinean cardinal

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 1, 2009 / 09:01 pm (CNA)

...

Social debt is “immoral, unjust and illegitimate,” the cardinal said, emphasizing that this is especially true when it occurs “in a nation that has the objective conditions for avoiding or correcting such harm.” “Unfortunately,” he noted, it seems that those same countries “opt for exacerbating inequalities even more.”

Argentineans have the duty “to work to change the structural causes and personal or corporate attitudes that give rise to this situation (of poverty), and through dialogue reach agreements that allow us to transform this painful reality we refer to when we speak about social debt,” the prelate said.

Cardinal Bergoglio said the challenge to eradicate poverty could not be truthfully met as long as the poor continue to be dependents of the State. The government and other organizations should instead work to create the social conditions that will promote and protect the rights of the poor and enable them to be the builders of their own future, he explained.

The problem of debt and social justice must be of concern to every sector of society, he added, including leaders in government, politics, finance, business, agriculture, industry, unions, the Church and other social organizations.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/extreme_poverty_is_also_a_violation_of_human_rights_says_argentinean_cardinal/

[JDPriestly]

5. Let's hope he will change Catholicism.

After the naming of this Pope, I pulled a book out of my shelf entitled "In God's Name" (1984). I bought it used years ago somewhere but, when I bought it and started it, the thesis seemed so far-fetched to me that I stopped reading after a few pages and left it on my shelf.

The author of this book, David A. Yallop, theorized that Pope John Paul I who was elected August 26, 1978 and died on September 28 that same year was murdered. I haven't finished the book, but, and I know it's unfair to judge the book since I have only read half of it, but just the idea that a Pope could be murdered in the Vatican seems far-fetched to me. I read a few pages and just did not continue. Now I'm reading it again, and I find it far too fascinating to put down. In fact I read half-way through the book just today.

What fascinates me now that I did not appreciate years ago when I first bought the book is the detailed account of the scandals of the Vatican and Ambrosiana and related banks during the 1970s. It is just amazing. Technically, it is in many respects quite different from the banking scandal of the Bush era. But in some ways it is similar.

The Vatican is very wealthy. It was no doubt involved as was most of the wealth in the world in some way, great or small in the Bush era banking scandals. I couldn't guess just how much or how.

I am wondering whether Pope Francis will finally clean up that bank and the money laundering and favoritism toward the rich that has plagued the Vatican and made a mockery of the Roman Catholic form of Christianity for centuries. That's a big job. It's a lot to ask. I doubt that anyone can do it. If he wants to try, I can only wish him well.

If he tries and fails, the Catholic Church will, in my opinion become an institution with a glorious past and no future.

If he doesn't try at all, the church will just be a big joke all over the world as it is to many Europeans who are Catholic in name only or who are seeking a spiritual reality in spite of the Church already. (OK. DU atheists. I hear you and I'm not going to argue with those of you. It's OK. Really. I have no quarrel with you, but let others think and feel what they will even if you can't.)

[Catherina]

10. I haven't read that book

Let's just say though that when it comes to banking, the Church is quite *faillable* and I hope he can clean up the bank.

[limpyhobbler]

11. Respectfully I'm very skeptical on whether this Pope believes in real economic reforms.

Or that he has any credentials as a social reformer. He uses words and symbols that appeal to poor people, but doesn't seem to back that up by supporting fundamental economic reforms. I think he might be kind of like Bill Clinton in that respect, a middle-of-the-road political opportunist, feeling our pain and stuff, but actually serving elite power by distracting the poor. He affiliates with the Communion and Liberation movement. I think that movement functioned as an anti-Marxist centrist response to Liberation Theology during the Cold War, allowing priests to speak in a vocabulary of popular liberation while actually serving capitalist power.

(The 1970s) were the years of the military junta in Argentina, when many priests, including leading Jesuits, were gravitating towards the progressive liberation theology movement. As the Jesuit provincial, Bergoglio insisted on a more traditional reading of Ignatian spirituality, mandating that Jesuits continue to staff parishes and act as chaplains rather than moving into "base communities" and political activism.
...

Over the years, Bergoglio became close to the Comunione e Liberazione movement founded by Italian Fr. Luigi Giussani, sometimes speaking at its massive annual gathering in Rimini, Italy. He's also presented Giussani's books at literary fairs in Argentina. This occasionally generated consternation within the Jesuits, since the ciellini once upon a time were seen as the main opposition to Bergoglio's fellow Jesuit in Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini....

On the other hand, that's also part of Bergoglio's appeal, someone who personally straddles the divide between the Jesuits and the ciellini, and more broadly, between liberals and conservatives in the church.
...

Even though he uses language like this:

"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio said during a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007. "The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."

He didn't support poor people's movements when it really counted. And I'm afraid he teaches a philosophy of personal enslavement, discouraging people from trying to improve their lives through political efforts.

... he has generally tended to accent growth in personal holiness over efforts for structural reform.

Quotes all from http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/papabile-day-men-who-could-be-pope-13

True any pope is going to say it's a sin to be gay or have an abortion. But there is also a question of how much they stress it. Will the Church teach that it's a sin to vote for candidates who favor gay marriage and abortion? We all know how those issues can be used to divide the working class. This is true in the US and also in Latin America. So I wonder how hard he is going to enforce the views on sex and abortion and whether this will divide the working class to serve the rich.

There are also allegations from other priests that during the right-wing dictatorship Bergoglio snitched on some of the radical priests and turned them in to the junta to be tortured. He denied it.

He's probably sincere in wanting to help the poor, maybe like Bill Clinton. But throughout his life he's been in a position to help those who were actually helping the poor through social movements and it seems like at best he didn't help, and probably actively opposed those movements. He got along pretty well with the dictatorship while other priests were being tortured in military prisons for trying to help the poor.

Don't get me wrong. I'm just a cynical person. It's not like we could have got some better Pope. I don't have any bad will toward the new Pope. Hopefully he will use his influence to help the poor any way he can.

See also:
Pope Francis Led Effort Against Liberation Theology and Same-Sex Marriage

[Catherina]

16. I have more faith than you do but you could be right

Only time will tell.

About those allegations, they're totally false.

If I had my preference, a Leftist Marxist theologist would have been chosen but that's about as unrealistic as expecting the US to allow a Marxist anywhere near Congress. He has respect from the Left and the Right. Several Liberation theologians have given him their open support via public endorsements and personally, I don't think the gulf between official Church positions and Liberation theology is that wide. The place where it's made to appear the widest is in the English press.

In March 1983, Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), made ten observations of Gutiérrez's theology, accusing Gutiérrez of politically interpreting the Bible in supporting temporal messianism, and stating that the predominance of orthopraxis over orthodoxy in his thought proved a Marxist influence. Ratzinger objected that the spiritual concept of the Church as "People of God" is transformed into a "Marxist myth." In liberation theology he declared, the "people is the antithesis of the hierarchy, the antithesis of all institutions, which are seen as oppressive powers. Ultimately anyone who participates in the class struggle is a member of the "people"; the "Church of the people" becomes the antagonist of the hierarchical Church."[24]

Cardinal Ratzinger did praise liberation theology in some respects, including its ideal of justice, its rejection of violence, and its stress on "the responsibility which Christians necessarily bear for the poor and oppressed."[25] He subsequently stated that no one could be neutral in the face of injustice, and referred to the "crimes" of colonialism and the "scandal" of the arms race. Nonetheless, media reports tended to assume that the condemnation of "liberation theology" meant a rejection of such attitudes and an endorsement of conservative politics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology

I'm not sure what that article is referring to by "efforts for structural reform". Do they mean within the Church or politically? I took it to mean Church structure but I could be wrong.

Only time is going to tell on this one I think.

[limpyhobbler]

17. I took

"efforts for structural reform" to vaguely mean struggles for land reform, nationalization of industries, and expanding democracy for more participation by workers and landless peasants. Typical class struggle issues in Latin America.

Anyways like you said time will tell.

[Catherina]

18. Because of the preceding paragraph, I think you're right

From what previous papal encyclicals have said, they support land reform, and expanding democracy for more participation by workers and landless peasants. They haven't so far supported nationalization of industries/eliminating private property but those things can change since they're not dogma.

Will Francis do it? Probably not. But I think he'll take the world a few steps closer and not demonize the countries that have. I could be soooooooooooo wrong so don't quote me.

[limpyhobbler]

19. LOL ok I won't hold you to it.

[Catherina]

20. Thank you. I appreciate that

because sometimes I get to *hope*ful.