The Pope is Sounding More and More Like A Socialist

The Pope is starting to sound like a socialist dictator each time me confronts the issue of poverty.

There are parts of this that sound strangely like a speech from Hugo Chavez.

Lent is the solemn period leading up to Holy Week and Easter, when the faithful recall Christ's death and resurrection. It's a time when Christians often fast, and Francis urged the faithful to deny themselves certain things this Lent "to help and enrich others by our own poverty."

"When power, luxury and money become idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of wealth," he said in the short message. "Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing."

He said it's not enough to just make charitable offerings. "Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt," he wrote.

"How much pain is caused in families because one of their members - often a young person - is in thrall to alcohol, drugs, gambling and pornography!" he lamented.

Sometimes "unjust social conditions" like unemployment lead to this type of destitution by depriving people of the dignity of work and access to education and health care, he said.

"In such cases, moral destitution can be considered impending suicide."

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, however, espoused the exact same concerns, writing an entire encyclical in 2009 in which he denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality blamed for bringing about the global financial meltdown and called for a new world financial order guided by ethics and the search for the common good.

I take what what the pope is saying as very misguided. The Bible speaks of people giving of their own will. Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of, or make reference to government intervention on behalf of the poor. The Bible does not support Central Planning, or "a new world financial order," as mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI.

This is very strange and seems more like something a dictator would say.

Now a brief message from Hugo Chavez at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit.

Then President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.

Should people do more to help each other? Of course they should. Should helping others be mandated and directed and controlled by government? NO!

People forget that when any government tries to act as a charity that government will determine how "wealth is redistributed." Wouldn't it make sense for a government, consisting of those in power, to distribute wealth based on maintaining that power?

The Pope said, "When power, luxury and money become idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of wealth," he said in the short message. "Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing." Do most politicians have "justice, equality, simplicity and sharing" as their guiding principles? Think about that for a moment.

When governments redistribute wealth it is not based on peoples' neediness, it is based on the best interests of those redistributing. When neediness is not the driving force behind charity, it's not charity anymore.

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