Pope Francis has urged the people of Latin America to stand up to the world's capitalist system and change the world economic order by creating a “truly communitarian economy” based on distribution of goods among all.
Starting his speech with the need to instigate change, he called on the faithful to fight to protect human dignity in a “system” where farm workers end up without land or home and laborers without rights.
“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?” he asked at a powerful speech before a gathering of social movements in Bolivia.
Once “capital” becomes an “idol” and guides individuals and once “greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system,” it ruins society, Francis said. It enslaves individuals and destroys “ fraternity,” a system which “excludes, debases and kills.”
“This system is by now intolerable. So let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change,” Pope Francis said.
The Pope called on his followers to create a “truly communitarian economy,” a system that would guarantee the three “L’s” of land, lodging and labor.
“It is no utopia or chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it. Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation,” the Pope said in the city of Santa Cruz to participants of the second world meeting of popular movements, an international body that brings together organizations of people on the margins of society.
The Argentinian-native Pope urged the crowd to tackle “three great tasks”.
The first task is to create an economy at the ”service of peoples” not at the “service of money” Such an approach, the Pope believes, will focus on service rather than profits which in return will protect “Mother Earth.”
The second task is to unite our peoples on the “path of peace and justice” to defend their sovereignty against “colonialism.”
“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.”
“Monopolizing communications” is yet another example of consumerism and “new colonialism” for the Pope that ultimately denies countries the right to development.
Pope Francis called on social movements to protect their culture, their language, their social processes and their religious traditions.
The third task is environmental: to “defend Mother Earth,” by breaking down the current “system” which ravishes the planet's ecology.
The Vatican is seeking to explain a "Communist crucifix" given to Pope Francis by Bolivian President Evo Morales, saying it's a symbol of dialogue and not an offensive melding of faith and ideology.
Mr Morales gave the crucifix carved into a hammer and sickle to Francis when they met on Wednesday upon the Pope's arrival in Bolivia.
The Vatican wasn't expecting the unusual gift and it immediately raised eyebrows.
It turns out the crucifix was designed by Jesuit activist Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980 by suspected paramilitaries during the months that preceded a military coup. Francis is a fellow Jesuit and he stopped to pray at the site where Espinal's body was dumped.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Thursday the Pope had had no idea that Espinal had designed such a crucifix.
Father Lombardi said Espinal's fellow priests said he had designed the crucifix as a symbol of dialogue and commitment to freedom for Bolivia during a turbulent time.
Many church theologians have bitterly denounced the Marxist influences on Liberation Theology, but Francis has tried to rehabilitate the movement – without the Marxism.
Pope Francis on Thursday urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a "new colonialism" by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the "sacred rights" of labor, lodging and land.
In one of the longest, most passionate and sweeping speeches of his pontificate, the Argentine-born pope also asked forgiveness for the sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church in its treatment of native Americans during what he called the "so-called conquest of America."
Quoting a fourth century bishop, he called the unfettered pursuit of money "the dung of the devil," and said poor countries should not be reduced to being providers of raw material and cheap labor for developed countries.
Repeating some of the themes of his landmark encyclical "Laudato Si" on the environment last month, Francis said time was running out to save the planet from perhaps irreversible harm to the ecosystem.
Francis made the address to participants of the second world meeting of popular movements, an international body that brings together organizations of people on the margins of society, including the poor, the unemployed and peasants who have lost their land. The Vatican hosted the first meeting last year.
"Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change," the pope said, decrying a system that "has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature."
"This system is by now intolerable: farm workers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable … The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable," he said in an hour-long speech that was interrupted by applause and cheering dozens of times.
Two Christian bakers who refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding have been ordered to pay $135,000 in damages by July 13 or else the state of Oregon could place a lien on their home.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, were punished by the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) for unlawfully discriminating against a same-sex couple.
The Kleins, who are devout evangelical Christians, argued that baking the cake would be a violation of their religious beliefs.
The BOLI ruling ordered the mom-and-pop bakers to pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple. They were also slapped with a gag order that prohibits themfrom speaking publicly about their refusal to participate in or bake wedding cakes for same-sex unions.
And now - they have until July 13 to pay the damages or else face additional fines and a possible lien on their home.
“This is intimidation and bullying - that’s exactly what it is,” Klein told me in a telephone interview.“ They are trying to strong-arm me into handing over $135,000 to the two girls and if I win on appeal - they will never pay me back.”
A BOLI spokesman confirmed they sent a standard payment letter to the Kleins' attorney.
“The letter informs them that if we do not hear from them, we may turn the matter over to the Department of Revenue, which can place a lien on real property,” the spokesman told me.
BOLI said they would also be willing to accept either a full payment or payment arrangements.
“Of course, they can also ask for a stay of enforcement while they pursue their appeal,” the spokesman said.
But there’s a catch. The person who will determine whether or not to stay the order — is BOLI Commissioner Brad Avakian — a vocal supporter of the LGBTQIA movement.
“The judge, jury and executioner are all in one place,” said Anna Harmon, the Kleins' attorney. “He is intent on using his office to root out thought and speech with which he personally disagrees.”
Harmon, who is affiliated with Alliance Defending Freedom, said they were expecting the payment letter that came from BOLI.
“This letter, while it’s the normal procedure, continues to show the state is not backing down,” she told me. “They don’t think they did anything wrong here.”
Avakian’s strong arm tactics against the Christian bakers have outraged Christians across the nation.
“This guy would make Mussolini proud,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research council. “This is a wannabe dictator.”
It certainly appears that Avakian and the state of Oregon have declared war on the Klein family.
“Not only do they want to drive them out of business, but they want to make them homeless,” Perkins told me.
The Kleins say they are filing a stay and do plan on appealing the state’s decision.
“Brad and his cohorts at BOLI have overstepped their constitutional rights in requiring me to cease and desist from my constitutional freedom,” Mr. Klein said. “I will fight them with every last breath I have.”
Mrs. Klein said she would not be intimidated by Avakian’s hard line tactics.
“He definitely messed with the wrong Christians”- Melissa Klein
“We are so going to fight this, oh my gosh,” she said. “It’s making us stronger and emboldening us to stand up to this. Aaron and I are fighting for every American out there - for their freedom. We are not backing down at all.”
And while the viciousness of the attacks against the Kleins might be unsettling — Harmon said it really should serve as a source of inspiration.
“What a time to be an American,” she said. “It’s a hard time - our freedoms are challenged - but what a time to be able to stand and have courage and say, ‘I have a moment in time where I can be a voice for that.’”
China’s stock market had what traders call a “Dead Kitty” bounce on Thursday as the communist authorities dispatched police and security personnel to “encourage” insider-buying and to arrest short sellers. With the Chinese market still highly inflated even after falling $3 trillion in value, China took action last night to “nationalize” about $6 trillion in losses.
China is about to show its third straight quarter of negative real (after inflation) GDP growth. The nation had been relying on a stock market boom to play a “decisive role” in funding the nation’s “Silk Road” reforms to transition to a consumer economy.
But as Breitbart News warned in “China’s Lehman Brothers Weekend Begins,” the “Red Dragon” has suffered a financial collapse equivalent in degree to the U.S. stock crash in 2008-9. Unlike the U.S., which used a formal government bailout to stabilize markets, the Communist Party instructed the nation’s banks to use their own balance sheets to guarantee the current $8 trillion stated value of all of China’s 2800 listed stocks.
As Stratfor’s John Minnich points out, “market capitalization of Chinese stock markets hovered around $1 trillion to $2 trillion” before the recent stock boom. At its peak on June 12, “China’s stock market capitalization, all the markets across the country, was something in the area of $10 trillion to $11 trillion.”
But with the Chinese people suffering $3 trillion of losses since June 12, over half of all shares suspended from trading for up to six months, and banks stretched to finance the entire economy and bail out the stock markets, China is about to suffer the worst negative “wealth effect” of any nation since the US Great Depression.
As Breitbart News reported in “China Debt-Bomb Fuse is Burning,” China is buried under “crippling local government and corporate debt”. The country’s debt restructuring plan has consisted of banks rolling over all their non-performing state-owned-enterprise loans and relying on individual investors to bail out the banks by having unsophisticated retail investors buy new public offerings of insolvent state-owned companies.
And now, with their creative financial-engineering scheme to inflate the stock markets having steered the nation into a 1929-style stock crash, the Chinese Communist Party was just forced to have state-owned banks nationalize another $8 trillion loss, or about 100 percent of GDP.
8 comments:
It was pretty hard to read through the news articles today Scott. I hate the injustice we are seeing with the Klein's in Oregon as the tyrannical government comes in to crush them financially.
The other articles show the Pope is clearly "out of the closet" into the open as the false prophet. Not much doubt anymore the role he will be playing as he is full speed ahead with globalization/fascism agenda. He is surely paving the way for the AC.
Perhaps even today! Maranatha!
WV- good points i agree
Wow....words just cannot express my amazement with the popewatch!!! He is behaving exactly as we would expect, based on prophecy! God's Word is sooooo AWESOME! Every little piece of the puzzle is falling PERFECTLY into place! Come Lord Jesus, COME!
WV, I agree, wow, the Pope has really became outspoken here lately.
Joining in prayer for the Kleins, and for justice to prevail and the evil here to be unmasked and exposed for all to see. May it reap all its just rewards.
Now China looks like its gonna be more fun that a Repossession Convention minus the booze. Those boys-n-gals got a snoot full of trouble....but that sure is a novel way of handling it. If they're arresting the short sellers, which wasn't against the law, I'd sure hate to be a banker that had to tell the authorities I couldn't buy the shares without going bankrupt.
Dang, I've paid good money for far less entertainment than China, Kerry/Iran, the derivative fiasco, and watching the economic ponzi scheme unravel.
That good ole Gov. Entertainment certainly is rampant . Especially with this administration.
No words.
http://conservativepost.com/new-bible-translation-queen-james-bible-eliminates-homosexuality-as-sin-because-it-insults-gays/
I haven't read it yet but the title is definitely ominous
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