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Guest Post: Is The Pope's Dream Our Totalitarian Nightmare?
Submitted by Susan Warner via Gatestone Institute,
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Some high-profile commentators think they smell a Marxist clothed in white papal robes, who dreams of redistributing the world's wealth. Pope Francis insists that he has little interest in Marxism and that his political advocacy against materialism, capitalism, greed and idolatry are largely religious in nature. However, the flavor of some of his statements might suggest otherwise.
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The Pope also knows that the UN is poised to strong-arm member nations to sign on to an impossible globalist agenda that will require a total shift of the world's wealth, and a restructuring of international politics and economics with a one-world government and a universal religion at the steering wheel.
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Even to the Pope's admirers, that sounds a less like peace and love and more like a utopian totalitarian nightmare.
The world press is in high gear for Pope Francis's visit to Cuba and the United States this week. Recently, the Pope has stirred up a stew mixing world poverty, the evils of capitalism and global warming into an elaborate narrative that is likely to keep journalists awake for weeks to come.
![]() Pope Francis visits former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at Castro's home in Havana, Cuba, on September 20, 2015. (Image source: BBC video screenshot) |
As the first ever Pope to address a joint session of Congress, he is expected to take some shots at the structural evils of free market capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth. As early as 2013, when he penned his Apostolic Exhortation, in which he laid out his broad vision for the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been clarifying his positions on these topics.
With the subsequent release of his controversial encyclical on global warming in June, he established two pressing themes that will likely monopolize his coming visit.
Climate change is expected to be the focus of his address to the UN General Assembly on September 25, as he kicks off the 2015 UN Summit on Sustainable Development and its seventeen-point utopian agenda for the entire planet, packaged in a thinly disguised reboot of Agenda 21. According to IPS news:
"Judging by his recent public pronouncements – including on reproductive health, biodiversity, the creation of a Palestinian state, the political legitimacy of Cuba and now climate change – Pope Francis may upstage more than 150 world leaders when he addresses the United Nations, come September... The Pope will most likely be the headline-grabber, particularly if he continues to be as outspoken as he has been so far."
Along the way, he has managed to stun even many Catholics with pronouncements about issues that they think should be none of his business.
When the Pope's recent encyclical on global warming was first leaked to the press in June, it stirred protests that the Pope should confine his expertise to religious matters:
"Former US senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, for instance, is a devout Catholic who has said he loves the pope, but has also called global warming a "hoax" and the research underlying findings of climate change 'junk science'.
"In a recent interview, Santorum advised Francis to 'leave science to the scientists' and focus instead on theology and morality. The suggestion was that the pontiff, who studied chemistry as a student, has no business pronouncing on something that exceeds his competence."
As the Pope declared war on global warming, he emphasized his continuing opposition to capitalism, materialism, selfishness and other "human factors," which he asserts are the foundational causes of the imminent destruction of the planet's ecosystem.
Writing in the Apostolic Exhortation and the Encyclical on Global Warming, the Pope justified his view that the temperature of the planet is economic and political, and it also undergirds religious concerns -- especially since the results of global warming are likely to affect the poor disproportionately.
His public denunciations of free market capitalism started in earnest with the recent papal visit to South America, where, to cheering crowds, he made some passionate statements about poverty and economics.
Speaking to grassroots organizers, Pope Francis declared his own personal war on capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, greed and materialism. According to CNN:
Pope Francis delivered a fiery denunciation of modern capitalism on Thursday night, calling the "unfettered pursuit of money" the "dung of the devil" and accusing world leaders of "cowardice" for refusing to defend the earth from exploitation.
Speaking to grassroots organizers in Bolivia, the Pope urged the poor and disenfranchised to rise up against "new colonialism," including corporations, loan agencies, free trade treaties, austerity measures, and "the monopolizing of the communications media.
Fox News reported that in one of his South American speeches, the Pope admonished business, government and trade union leaders, charging them with "idolatrous" and materialistic ways. CNN quotes him at one gathering saying to a group of business leaders, politicians, labor union leaders and other civil society groups on a Saturday evening: "I ask them not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit."
Some high-profile commentators such as Rush Limbaugh think they smell a Marxist clothed in white papal robes, who dreams of redistributing the world's wealth.
Pope Francis insists that he has little interest in Marxism and that his political advocacy against materialism, capitalism, greed and idolatry are largely religious in nature. However, the flavor of some of his statements might suggest otherwise.
To understand how the Pope thinks, it is helpful to glimpse at some of his closest counselors on these topics.
One advisor on his August global warming encyclical is the controversial professed atheist, Professor John Schnellnhuber, who was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Science, and has been accused of advocating population control.
In an interview in June with Breitbart, Lord Christopher Monckton, chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute, and a leader in the fight against the science of climate change, questioned Schnellnhuber's role in the encyclical:
Monckton further explained that Francis is influenced by extremist Professor John Schnellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who said in 2009 at a climate conference in Copenhagen that if we let global warming continue, six billion of the seven billion people on earth will be killed by it.
Monckton said that Schnellnhuber will be standing by the side of Pope Francis when they announce the encyclical next week. "The fact that Schnellnhuber is going to be there is an extremely bad sign," he declared.
The fact that he will be there next to the pope suggests to Monckton that Francis is thanking him for having written the climate portion of the encyclical.
Another of the Pope's closest advisors is Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, sometimes considered "the Vice Pope" because of his charisma and influence.
On April 13, 2013, Pope Francis appointed Maradiaga as a coordinator of the group of cardinals established to advise him in the governance of the universal church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia. Maradiaga is apparently also considered a leading progressive voice in Catholicism.
According to a NewsMax report from last year:
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a close advisor to Pope Francis, criticized the free market as "a new idol" that increases inequality and excludes the poor in a keynote speech in Washington on Tuesday. ... This economy kills," he told the gathered crowd. "The hungry or sick child of the poor cannot wait."
The "elimination of the structural causes of poverty" is another concept taken from the "Apostolic Exhortation" handbook; some suggest it sounds like a call for a revolution.
Pope Francis undoubtedly knows that some of these ideas are not likely to go over as well in the United States as they did in Latin America. According to the New York Times,
"As his papal jetliner was returning to Rome (from his recent visit to South America), Francis signaled that he knew his economic message was already facing criticism in the United States and pledged to study it. Some critics blame him for rebuking capitalism with an unduly broad brush. Others say he ignores that globalization has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty."
The Pope also knows, however, that the UN is poised to strong-arm member nations to sign on to an impossible globalist agenda that will require a total shift of the world's wealth, and a restructuring of international politics and economics with a one-world government and a universal religion at the steering wheel.
Even to the Pope's admirers, that sounds a less like peace and love and more like a utopian totalitarian nightmare.
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I often wonder if Pope Ponzi Casino Capitalism Climate Change knows, or understands, the historiography behind The Origin of Species, Chuckles Darwin's Thesis on Evolution, or even the notion that climate cannot change given that it can only evolve in evolutionary terms. In brief, I sincerely doubt that Pope Ponzi Casino Capitalism Climate Change understands that his ruse is half-baked, and the biggest brain fart that any Pope Ponzi schemer has ever come out with in the history of Popery in the Roman Catholic Church.
Up yours, JesuitBOY.
At the very least, based on his explicit statements, Francis is a radical leftist: on par with Woodrow Wilson or Franklin Roosevelt. That would be bad enough, but I think it's pretty obvious, looking at the whole picture, that he's actually an outright communist: which is to say that the Alta Vendita finally achieved their goal.
He should be declared a heretic and deposed.
Just another antichrist
Should come as no surprise
Look forward to see the Catholic Church get wiped out along with the banks. We'll know when we see them auctioning off their art.
Religion has a lot in common with politics. The worst rise to the top on the backs of zombies.
I can see you now wearing your V for Vendetta mask and stroking it.
Ahhhh.... the pope rides around in his bullet proof pope mobile. Now that's FAITH for you!
(RIP- Bill Hicks)
I miss Bill. RIP, you asshole.
The POPE speaks against IDOLATRY?
Uh, huh.
The LEADER of the Roman Catholic CHURCH speaks against GREED?
Uh, huh.
This DIMWIT claims WARMER WEATHER weather will cause 85% of the world population to STARVE TO DEATH, when everyone with a brain or knowledge of MWP knows warmer weather means more of the planet surface will be suitable for growing crops, and growing seasons will be longer and more productive?
Uh, huh.
This AUTHORITY claims he cares for the people of earth... by advocating every human on the planet must OBEY authorities like him, and thus be eternal abject SLAVES?
Uh, huh.
What a LIAR.
What a JERK.
What a FRAUD.
What a PREDATOR.
Just like every politician on the planet. How revolting.
A member of our (Baptist) church posted (and agreed with) the Pope's claim that you can't work for a gun manufacturer and be a Christian.
I responded with a link to a list of weapons used by Swiss Guard in their duties to protect the pope. I asked if the pope was going to order the Swiss Guard to give up their weapons.
No response from him or the "likers" of that post.
Barretta Arms in Italy is owned by the Vatican Bank.
While you all talk about 'teabagging' as to the Fed central bank move, the Pope advocates that thos balls be made lunch as that will not affect the position of sacred female fertility
The Pope's beliefs regarding wealth, the hoarding of goods. placing value on inanimate objects, charging interest etc etc etc happen to stem from the teachings Christ and his Apostles - they are the foundation of the Christiamn belief and you cannot call yourself Chritian unless you accept them.
Of course, Christianity could always reject Christ if it finds his teachings distatsteful.
Really? Have you ever toured the Vatican? Nuff said?
The anti-Catholics are predictably out in force today here at ZH. The Protestant reformation is alive and well. Yes, there are also many self-proclaimed atheists, but scratch an atheist and get a Protestant.
The difference between Protestants and Catholics is that every Protestant is a pope. And because everything Protestants say ultimately comes straight from God, they are always speaking infallibly, ie, ex cathedra. This is true for each of the millions of popes who are the individual pontiffs of their church of one, and true for all of the 33,000 "denominations."
Yet there does seem to be some unity, nevertheless. For instance, evangelical Protestants claim that they adhere to a strict literal interpretation of the Bible. This leads them to interpret the Eucharist as merely symbolic. They find the idea of actually literally eating the body of Christ "a hard saying" and therefore reject it, whereas Catholics take what Christ said, well, excuse the expression, literally. You will find that 100% of Protestants reject the literal interpretation of Christ's words in this matter. Rather a risky business, considering that Christ made this a sine qua non for Salvation.
Warning: Drinking Protestant Koolaid could be dangerous for your health, er, salvation (salus).
Very confusing post...though it seems it all makes sense to you. I see benefits and drawbacks to both, and each are equally confounding hypoctical nightmares at the same time. It's curious how beliefs do that, isn't it? If you believe in God and Jesus being one, then it seems convenient for elites to marginalize everyone into being either Catholic or Protestant (with a capital P of course) so as to create strawmen to reduce the individual to some driviling worshiper of another humn in some capacity or form.
What this Pope and too many other "leaders" either miss unintentionally or intentionally try to exploit, is the ways in which no particular "theory" (economic, scientific, political, etc.) is in and of itself isolated within any one discipline. You can't claim to know about "climate science" by reading "scientists" and not history, political science, economics, etc. etc. Those are equally tests of their "theories" as they help a person contextualize the validity of "dominant agreement" amongst "scientists". How did they get to join the club? How do they become recognized as "experts"? Is that system in and of itself being tested for quality. This same thing must be done to any top-down theory these days as...
the systems (all of them) are crumbiling from a legitimacy crisis...and for good reason (a record of substantial failure).
Well said
Protestantism is a levelling ideology (as you say "every Protestant is a Pope"), at the root of both modern democracy and socialism.
Its life Jim but not as we know it.
AREN'T YOU ALREADY LIVING IN A TOTALITARIAN STATE?
DON'T FEEL IT. RIGHT? WHY COMPLAINTS?
YOU DON'T FEEL ANY DIFFERENT THAN NOW..
The illusion of freedom is powerful.
Perhaps more powerful than actual freedom.
Could even lead to authentic freedom.
Pope Francis quotes:
"As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems."
“No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism which seriously prejudice the possibility of peace and justice,
The new colonialism takes on different faces. At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain ‘free trade’ treaties, and the imposition of measures of ‘austerity’ which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor,”
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” [condemning a system that] “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature”.
"Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills."
"Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended ... there is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church.”
The context of your last one in toto:
Some of the passages in the “Evangelii Gaudium” attracted the criticism of ultraconservatives in the USA. As a Pope, what does it feel like to be called a “Marxist”?
“The Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”
The most striking part of the Exhortation was where it refers to an economy that “kills”…
“There is nothing in the Exhortation that cannot be found in the social Doctrine of the Church. I wasn’t speaking from a technical point of view, what I was trying to do was to give a picture of what is going on. The only specific quote I used was the one regarding the “trickle-down theories” which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and social inclusiveness in the world. The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor. This was the only reference to a specific theory. I was not, I repeat, speaking from a technical point of view but according to the Church’s social doctrine. This does not mean being a Marxist.”
Technically, yes & no on the Marxist ideology.
But what it really means is he's still trying to marry and/or ally himself (and by extension Catholicism itself, a religion)...to the state. This would be the very same state that has confiscated trillions for "the poor" generation after generation and yet there are still "the poor"?
And this is the thing (the state) he trusts will not turn on him or his religion in a New York second.
Leaving aside his socialistic big government tendencies for a moment, he should focus his attention on bringing the souls of men to God and not men's wallets to big government.
Nothing in the fine print about legalizing child molestation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPCxvxzujo
who cares what this bathrobe wearing adult thinks?
Pope schmope. Someone should ask him his opinion on crony capitalism. I'll bet he knows alot about that. Any down arrows can go do a novena.
These comments are priceless. Nary a word about Jorge Bergoglio's silence as head of the Jesuits when two priests became "desaparecidos" during Argentina's "dirty war" between 1976 to 1983? Nor a peep about child sacrifice in the Vatican's tombs or the Vatican's finances? https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/Twitter7.18.15.3.pdf
Or about when the Vatican was banished after Lincoln's assassination? A German Catholic has this to say about the corruption in Pope Francis' bank, the IOR: https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/Twitter9.7.15.3.pdf
A CIA agent's plot to rile up Patriots by mobilizing their distrust of the Vatican came to naught; the Vatican no longer holds the world's monetary gold reserves. These are held by the Global Debt Facility administered by the Ministers of Finance on the Board of Governors of the World Bank and IMF. https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/Twitter9.20.15.2.pdf
P.S. the actual hierarchy above Pope Francis: https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/Twitter5.7.15.pdf
Monckton says ... ?
Monckton is a bug eyed lunatic.
So the following few centuries after the printing press becomes "invented" in Europe and it's use becomes increasingly widespread over time, the Catholic Church is shaken to its foundation and the Christian Church is split forever. That consolidated system (the Catholic Church at the time) shared this experience with broader political elite systems (kingdoms, monarchies, etc.), economic systems (anti-free market), educational systems, etc. They are all eventually destroyed with regard to their previous quasi monopolies due to the decentralization of information and an explosion in literacy.
This event...the "printing press" in a general sense...is often referred to as the third "transformative event in human communication". It's transformative not simply because of it's technology, but because it changes the ways humans organize themselves significantly going forward (nations states replace monarchies, etc., natural rights and the real Enlightenment takes hold, religion is completely transformed, economic systems are transformed, etc. etc.). The printing press led to a legitimacy crisis for the elite institutions throughout society.
It is very interesting to me that the Catholic Church would again be on the spot during what is arguably the birth of the 4th transformative event in human communication...the massive decentralization of production and consumption of information via the internet. Legitimacy of institutions are collapsing again. That is a key first sign.
If I'm the Church...I tread very carefully and I wouldn't be tying myself to the UN, the "science" and "political" community, etc. etc.
This is how Obama is using the Pope:
http://www.floppingaces.net/2015/09/22/obama-and-pope-francis-vs-america...
The middle class has much to worry about.
Coming from a Regent from a Money Laundering Concern so designated by our own State Department, I see the Vapors of Bullshit Incense rising up to the Heavens.