Archives for June 2015

Samuel Gregg, Research Director at the Acton Institute, ascribes good intentions to pope Francis:
Laudato Si’: Well Intentioned, Economically Flawed

Most distressing perhaps is Pope Francis’ deeply negative view of free markets.

Gregg, in a lengthy, well-reasoned article, points out,

What’s sadly ironic about all this is that the very same encyclical which makes such sweeping assertions about the free market and its advocates is also marked by several welcome calls for reasoned and broad debate (16, 61, 135, 138, 165) about how we address environmental and economic problems. Laudato Si’ also emphasizes that the Church doesn’t have a monopoly of wisdom on the prudential dimension of environmental and economic questions. Yet the encyclical’s use of phrases such as “deified market” (56) and “magical conception of the market” (190); its unsupported association of moral relativism with Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (123); its relentless linkage of the market with materialism and consumerism (neither of which have had any difficulty flourishing in non-market economies); its failure to critique the left-populist regimes that have brought economic destruction and increased poverty to countries such as Argentina and Venezuela; and its attribution of suspicious motives to those who favor markets, runs contrary to this appeal for open and respectful debate.

Pope Francis, who recently

• Met with Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, the self-declared founder of liberation theology.
• Restored to the priesthood Miguel d’Escoto, the Sandinista who expounded liberation theology as a priest and turned Nicaragua into a Cuban-ruled hellhole. D’Escoto also considers Fidel Castro a saint.
• Brokered the “easing” of U.S.-Cuba relations that left the Cuban dissidents out in the dark.
• Welcomed Raul Castro for a “very friendly” hour-long private audience.
• Recognizes the Palestinian state.

is now calling for a cultural revolution. How did the last cultural revolution work out?

Francis, in his first solo encyclical, relies on decades-old “global north and south” language to describe some of the global economy’s dynamics, language which was adopted in the 1950s by Latin American economists, and

reflects the conceptual apparatus of what was called dependency theory: the notion that resources—especially natural resources—flow from a “periphery” of poor countries to a “core” of rich states, thereby benefiting the wealthy at the poor’s expense. This meant, according to dependency theory economists, that peripheral nations should restrict trade with developed countries and limit foreign investment. The point was to reduce their reliance on exports of raw minerals and agricultural products, consequently promoting the emergence of domestic industrial sectors.

The north-south dependency theory has been discredited. The encyclical, however, will be used as a propaganda tool for decades to come.

The pope’s stance against economic freedom may be based on good intentions –  the stuff the road to hell is paved with.

Related:
The Holy Father has appointed Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Potsdam and director of the Institute for Climate Impact in Potsdam, Federal Republic of Germany, as ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Laudato Si (full text at the link) is officially out, all 100 pages of it. After a quick read, here are a couple of impressions:

• Francis has no faith in man’s ability to improve mankind through technology.
• He repeatedly refers to the 1991 RIO DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT, which advocated wealth redistribution,
  

  Principle 7
  States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem. In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command.

• The Rio Declaration also advocated birth control (emphasis added),
  

  Principle 8
  To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production
  and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.

  which, except for the rhythm method, a.k.a. Catholic Roulette, the Catholic Church opposes.

• Francis ignores the global warming scandal.
• The document’s tone is that of profound pessimism
  

  Francis would not mind calling a halt to technological progress—or even beginning a rollback. “Given the insatiable and irresponsible growth produced over many decades, we need also to think of containing growth by setting some reasonable limits and even retracing our steps before it is too late.”

• In an especially poor choice of words, he specifically calls for a cultural revolution:
  

  All of this shows the urgent need for us to move forward in a bold cultural revolution.

• And, of course, he deplores cars,
  

  Many cars, used by one or more people, circulate in cities, causing traffic congestion, raising the level of pollution, and consuming enormous quantities of non-renewable energy.

So my question is, Did Francis sell his car yet?