The Pope spoke at the World Meeting of Popular Movements, taking place in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, yesterday. He did not mince his words. I will quote liberally.
He began:
Let us begin by acknowledging that change is needed. Here I would clarify, lest there be any misunderstanding, that I am speaking about problems common to all Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole. They are global problems which today no one state can resolve on its own.
I think that was important: he did not mean to be misunderstood: this was not just a South American message. The message he was delivering to the world was:
So let's not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change.
What on (and I stress I have edited here for brevity)?
In your letters and in our meetings, you have mentioned the many forms of exclusion and injustice which you experience in the workplace, in neighborhoods and throughout the land.
These are not isolated issues. I wonder whether we can see that these destructive realities are part of a system which has become global. Do we realize that that system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature?
If such is the case, I would insist, let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change.
We want change in our lives, in our neighborhoods, in our everyday reality. We want a change which can affect the entire world, since global interdependence calls for global answers to local problems. The globalization of hope, a hope which springs up from peoples and takes root among the poor, must replace the globalization of exclusion and indifference!
He continued:
[I]n my different travels, I have sensed an expectation, a longing, a yearning for change, in people throughout the world. Even within that ever smaller minority which believes that the present system is beneficial, there is a widespread sense of dissatisfaction and even despondency. Many people are hoping for a change capable of releasing them from the bondage of individualism and the despondency it spawns.
Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common home. Today, the scientific community realizes what the poor have long told us: harm, perhaps irreversible harm, is being done to the ecosystem. The earth, entire peoples and individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung of the devil”. An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people's decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.
I thought this interesting:
I do not need to go on describing the evil effects of this subtle dictatorship: you are well aware of them. Nor is it enough to point to the structural causes of today's social and environmental crisis. We are suffering from an excess of diagnosis, which at times leads us to multiply words and to revel in pessimism and negativity. Looking at the daily news we think that there is nothing to be done, except to take care of ourselves and the little circle of our family and friends.
And he then asked the question:
What can I do, as collector of paper, old clothes or used metal, a recycler, about all these problems if I barely make enough money to put food on the table? What can I do as a craftsman, a street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden worker, if I don't even enjoy workers' rights? What can I do, a farmwife, a native woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the domination of the big corporations? What can I do from my little home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I daily meet with discrimination and marginalization? What can be done by those students, those young people, those activists, those missionaries who come to my neighborhood with their hearts full of hopes and dreams, but without any real solution for my problems? A lot! They can do a lot. You, the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can do, and are doing, a lot. I would even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands, through your ability to organize and carry out creative alternatives, through your daily efforts to ensure the three “L's” (labor, lodging, land) and through your proactive participation in the great processes of change on the national, regional and global levels. Don't lose heart!
After saying much more he concluded saying (and I have edited, again):
I would like to propose three great tasks which demand a decisive and shared contribution from popular movements:
3.1 The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money. Let us say NO to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth.
3.2. The second task is to unite our peoples on the path of peace and justice.
Despite the progress made, there are factors which still threaten this equitable human development and restrict the sovereignty of the countries of the “greater country” and other areas of our planet. 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. The bishops of Latin America denounce this with utter clarity in the Aparecida Document, stating that “financial institutions and transnational companies are becoming stronger to the point that local economies are subordinated, especially weakening the local states, which seem ever more powerless to carry out development projects in the service of their populations”.
3.3. The third task, perhaps the most important facing us today, is to defend Mother Earth.
Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without any significant result. There exists a clear, definite and pressing ethical imperative to implement what has not yet been done. We cannot allow certain interests — interests which are global but not universal — to take over, to dominate states and international organizations, and to continue destroying creation. People and their movements are called to cry out, to mobilize and to demand — peacefully, but firmly — that appropriate and urgently-needed measures be taken. I ask you, in the name of God, to defend Mother Earth.
The whole text is worth reading, and I stress I am not a Catholic and I do not accept all Catholic social teaching. What I do recognise is a man (and he is no more) who is using his unique position of authority to say what he believes needs to be heard, and speaks of what he believes the mission of his Church to be.
I applaud him for that.
Few have that courage.
As a man who never expected such power he is using it well.
And I approve of a great deal of what he says.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
I am not a catholic, or religious in the traditional sense,but that is a powerful message, an inspiring message, a brave message
Monty Don did a super programme on the radio, Shared Planet, which through up questions about how we live together.
Thank you for highlighting this . So worthwhile.
Sorry , threw up questions.
I have a great deal of sympathy for this direction that the Pope seems to be looking in, I’m all for a change to the current circumstances we have slid into. But I have a fundamental problem with his diagnosis and real aims.
“releasing them from the bondage of individualism” is one of the classic deceits that organised religions use to prey on the legitimate fears and uncertainties we all face in living our lives by offering a ‘relief’ from the struggle. It is a call to allow some ‘authority’ to determine your choices rather than make them ourselves and as such is deeply harmful to any sense of ‘self’. It is a call to faith not reason.
It’s difficult to trust this change of direction, even if it chimes with our own wishes, if it requires abandoning those basic faculties which allow us to breathe freely.
Allan w in this context, I think the Pope means individualism as is exalted in the USA and often manifests as such values as–“Why should I pay for other peoples’ bad choices?’ Or “Why should the government take money from those who has earned it, like me, and give to it lazy people?
I understand your point and thank you for making it. If he meant this then maybe ‘consumerism’ was the word to use? But thank you.
One cannot be more free than to use one’s individual choices for the common good of all.
“Individualism” assumes that freedom lies in the choice, not the chosen. As such, it is independent of others, as long as we do not transgress their individual freedoms too.
But capitalism is based on making one’s own choice for your own good independent of the consequence for others
One can be a left wing libertarian, of course
But capitalism is not libertarian in that sense
Dear Richard,
What you say strikes at the heart of the problem with individualism. But there is a problem even before you add the materialism which makes it into capitalism.
The trouble is we have all heard the gospel of individualism so long it is hard to escape it. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with individual choice, just that it needs to be put in the service of a higher good. And being able to make this choice would actually make us more, not less free.
I commend you, Richard, for drawing out the social justice implications from the Pope’s speech, and fighting the case for the marginalised poor. I would like to see more faiths and faith leaders as strong allies in this endeavour.
Best wishes,
David
I have no problem with individualism per se – achievement of persona potential is at the heart of the ideas in the Courageous State. But, the liberation of the individual is only possible by commitment to the collective
Or, loving your neighbour as yourself as someone once said
I am a Catholic, albeit lapsed, and I believe that this Pope is, first and foremost, a truly great man because of his willingness and determination to speak truth to power, surely a much greater attribute than his position as head of a religion that many despise. What a gift to humanity it would be if leaders of other global religions would join him in his quest.
Thanks for sharing (and editing) this, Richard. It’s powerful stuff indeed, and extremely incisive in its analysis and prescription of what can and needs to be done. To highlight one passage that I can never imagine any of political leaders (or other churchmen) uttering (now we’ve lost Yanis Varoufakis):
‘And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung of the devil”. An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.’
Nor can I imagine any previous pope making such as statement. Then again (and speaking as someone who isn’t a catholic or religious), the Catholic Church has always struck me as a deeply conservative institution, traditionally not concerned with upsetting the apple cart of predatory capitalism, so I dare say there’ll be significant effort by the forces for the “status quo” within the church to limit any action that might flow from this. Nevertheless, a very, very influential man speaking truth unto power (and not for the first time since he became pope) is a major step forward.
Oddly Catholic social teaching is progressive
And this was, of course, the home of liberation theology
The Catholic church can surprise
Ivan (and others who may not be US politics nerds, as I tend to be)
What you predict is already happening amongst Catholic Republicans, as this “tasty” morsel demonstrates:
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/leading-republicans-bash-pope-francis-claim-he-doesnt-know-anything-about-christianity/
I saw this and related stuff when the Pope made his recent statements about climate change, Andrew. Which just goes to show that for a certain class of catholic/religious person money/wealth is indeed the one true god.
I think the first of those has the initials IDS
Neo-lib Catholics will find even the Pope ‘fallible’-even if ‘God’s’ voice boomed out delivering a similar multi-lingual message they would disavow it!
People like IDS and Blair belong to another branch of Catholisism. One that has no connection with Christianity.
The Catholic Church in the US is quite out of step with the rest of the world. I think their fear is that if they openly espouse catholic teachings on, say, climate change or inequality they’ll lose members to the Proddies. They tend towards “the only difference between us & Episcopalians is we aren’t WASPs” &”the only difference between us & Baptists is we don’t believe in creationism & we’re allowed to drink beer” (actually rather fundamental distinctions).
If you look at CAFOD it is fairly clear that alleviating poverty isn’t just about doing work in poor countries but in understanding why it happens & trying to change that.
The current pope stands in a long line. The last 2 popes were out of that line. I think John Paul II’s experiences of Communism made him a bit too unwilling to criticise Capitalism whilst Cardinal Ratzinger seemed like a gifted administrator & not much more. It was never going to work out well saying “you’re good with spreadsheets & Windows Office Manager. why don’t you become the spiritual leader of over 1 billion people”? In fairness, he had the rare humility to stand down & not many people would have had that self-awareness.
Do hope Mr Osborne has factored in for the Garden Bridge!
He should check the armourplate in his Popemobile methinks.
Speaking truth, to power, has always been a risky pursuit.
Speaking truth to the rich AND powerful may well be the final nail.
I don’t think he uses it
trouble for them is that there are too many of his sort popping up and what with the internet leaking info everywhere.. gone are the days they could just shoot them and hush up the press.
with Bernie Sanders rallying the troops over there, Mr Murphy and his ilk over here and now the Pope on board i’m not surprised Cartier’s billionaire boss recently confessed that the thought of poor people coming to get him is keeping him awake at night!
he’s really upsetting the Republicans in America. it’s ludicrous that the right-wing retains so much support amongst Christians and the Pope is just the man to wake followers up to the fact Jesus was actually a bit of a lefty (Welby take note!).
‘bit’?
My version has him as a full blown, outright one