Levica u Srbiji i svetu

12.25

The Hammer and Cross

Rajeev Ravisankar
Examining the fraught relationship between Christianity and Marxism.

No Country wrote:

William Murderface wrote:Evo nešto za Nou Kantrija

Овај, мораћеш боље да се потрудиш гледе мог преобраћања... 

To the extent that Marxism seeks the “emancipation of humankind from its alienated powers in the form of market forces,” Collier sees an ally in Christianity. Both doctrines have sought to limit the ability to “buy and sell everything” (“Jesus overthrew the moneychangers in the Temple and Peter’s curse on Simon Magus ought to put many an American evangelist in fear of hell fire”).

Данас се згодно потрефио Christmas Day, нешто најкомерцијалније што постоји на кугли Западној (баш тако: кугли, одавно се то проширило свуда). Када будем чуо каквог главнијег попа да загалами против "the moneychangers in the Temple", апропо Божића као озбиљног замајца дужничког ропства - можда ћу и да поверујем у антирежимски потенцијал религије? Но бојим се да је готова сва расположива евиденција против горње тезе.

Pope's Midnight Mass urges Catholics to turn away from commercialism of Christmas

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Pope Francis on Christmas Eve encouraged Catholics to turn away from consumerism and embrace the "smallness" of Baby Jesus.
During his homily at the annual Midnight Mass in a packed St. Peter's Square, Francis said the humble story of Jesus' birth in a manger remains a guiding principle of Catholicism.
"The Gospel reveals a paradox: it speaks of the emperor, the governor, the mighty of those times, but God does not make himself present there; he does not appear in the grand hall of a royal palace, but in the poverty of a stable; not in pomp and show, but in the simplicity of life; not in power, but in a smallness which surprises," Francis said, according to Vatican Radio's translation of the homily. "In order to discover him, we need to go there, where he is: we need to bow down, humble ourselves, make ourselves small.  The Child who is born challenges us: he calls us to leave behind fleeting illusions and go to the essence, to renounce our insatiable claims, to abandon our endless dissatisfaction and sadness for something we will never have.  It will help us to leave these things behind in order to rediscover in the simplicity of the God-child, peace, joy and the meaning of life."
Francis continued, chastising those for whom the essence of Christmas is in consumerism, rather than redoubling efforts to help the poor and society's forgotten people.
He urged the faithful not to get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas, "when we are concerned for gifts but cold toward those who are marginalized." Materialism has "taken us hostage this Christmas," he said. "We have to free ourselves of it!"
The Vatican's annual Midnight Mass is the first event on the Catholic Christmas calendar. Francis will offer another blessing, known as the Ubri et Orbi, or "To the City, To the World" at noon Christmas Day.

Када будем чуо каквог главнијег попа да загалами против "the moneychangers in the Temple", апропо Божића као озбиљног замајца дужничког ропства - можда ћу и да поверујем у антирежимски потенцијал религије?

Pope complains of ‘scandalous sums’ to save banks but not people

• Cindy Wooden
  November 5, 2016
  CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
  

Pope Francis salutes at the end of an audience with representatives of the popular movements at the Vatican Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016. (Credit: L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP.)


"What's happening in today's world that, when a bank goes bankrupt, immediately scandalous sums appear to save it, but when there's a 'bankruptcy of humanity,' there isn't one-one thousandth of the same amount to save these brothers who suffer so much?" Pope Francis asked on Saturday.


VATICAN CITY - Saying money can be a god who terrorizes humanity, Pope Francis on Saturday complained that “scandalous sums” are devoted to saving banks from bankruptcy, but nothing comparable to saving suffering people.
“What’s happening in today’s world that, when a bank goes bankrupt, immediately scandalous sums appear to save it, but when  there’s a ‘bankruptcy of humanity,’ there isn’t one-one thousandth of the same amount to save these brothers who suffer so much?”
The pope said the root of the problem is idolatry of wealth.
“The entire social doctrine of the church and the magisterium of my predecessors rebel against money as an idol that reigns instead of serves, tyrannizing and terrorizing humanity,” the pope said.
Like all forms of terrorism, the terrorism of an economy focused only on making money relies on people’s fear for effectiveness, Pope Francis said Nov. 5 during a meeting at the Vatican with participants in the third World Meeting of Popular Movements, a collection of grassroots organizations of the poor, the underemployed, indigenous communities and farmworkers.
“When this terror, which is sown in the peripheries with massacres, pillaging, oppression and injustice, explodes in the centers with various forms of violence - including odious and vile attacks - the citizens who still have some rights are tempted by the false security of physical or social walls,” he said. “Walls that enclose some and exile others.”
Frightened citizens building walls on one side and frightened and excluded people on the other - “is this the life that God our father wants for his children?” the pope asked.
Wherever there is fear, he said, there is someone who will increase and manipulate it. “Because fear, besides being good business for merchants of weapons and death, weakens and destabilizes us, destroying our psychological and spiritual defenses, anesthetizing us to the suffering of others and, in the end, making us cruel.”
Pope Francis said mercy is the “best antidote” to fear. It works better than anti-depression medicine and is “much more effective than walls, iron bars, alarms and weapons. And it is free.”
Mercy and courage also are needed to respond to the huge wave of refugees, migrants and displaced people all over the globe, he said.
“No one should be forced to flee his or her homeland,” he said. “But the evil is doubled when, facing terrible circumstances, the migrant is thrown into the clutches of human traffickers to cross the border. And it is tripled if, arriving in the land where he or she hoped to find a better future, one is despised, exploited or even enslaved.”
Pope Francis urged members of the popular movements to lobby their governments to be more welcoming of migrants and to improve programs to ensure their integration into their host societies.
The political activism of the groups, he said, is important for ensuring true democracy and not simply an attitude where politicians address poverty without ever listening to or responding to the poor.
In democracies, he said, people who “seek the common good can defeat, with the help of God, the false prophets who exploit fear and desperation, who sell magic formulas of hatred and cruelty or selfish well-being and illusory security.”
When getting involved in politics, though, the pope said, members of the movement must guard against corruption.
All people are called to be honest, he said, but politicians and public servants have an even greater obligation. “The standard is very high: one must live the vocation of service with a strong sense of austerity and humility. This applies to politicians, but also for social leaders and for us pastors.”
Pope Francis said politics is not the place for “anyone who is too attached to material things or to the mirror, those who love money, lavish banquets, sumptuous houses, refined clothes, luxury cars.”
They don’t belong in the seminary, either, he said.
Seeking power or money “sullies the noble cause” of politics as service, the pope said.
“Fight the fear with a life of service, solidarity and humility on behalf of the people, especially those who suffer,” he said. “Against the terror, the best remedy is love. Love heals all.”
Saying that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “always chose fraternal love, even in the midst of the worst persecution and humiliation,” Pope Francis quoted from one of the sermons of the civil rights leader:
“Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.”

No Country wrote:

William Murderface wrote:Daj uradi domaći

Што, кад имам свог штребера? 

Yet Francis has gone beyond making the bank more open in its business dealings. He is also changing its mission to emphasize helping the poor, a defining initiative in his papacy. In a note in the bank's latest annual report, top official Monsignor Battista Ricca, who Francis appointed in 2013, wrote that the bank's "purpose is not to pursue the accumulation of wealth," but rather to support those engaged in "the universal mission of the Church. ...to feed, to educate, to heal and to permit the gospel to be known."
If Pope Francis has taken important steps to improve the Vatican bank's governance and operation, more might be done to align the institution with its core mission, some experts say. One way the Vatican bank could provide immediate relief to hundreds of millions of the world's poor would be to facilitate a global banking network that reduces the costs of wiring money, said James Henry, a lawyer and tax expert at Columbia University's Center on Sustainable Investment.
"Let's make it a bank for the poor so people don't have to pay the exorbitant fees they do now to remit money back home," he said. "Keep in mind that all of the world's foreign aid comes to just $135 billion. But remittances made between struggling families are more than $450 billion, and that means that $20 billion to $40 billion is spent just on transfer fees."