POPE WHAT’S HIS NAME

Sorry to say the jury is still out for me with this new Pope.  I am warming up to him as time passes.  Yet, just as I am about to tip my Lutheran hat to him, he makes some turkey statement to the press. 

I know.  I know.  One shouldn’t expect to believe the press will be fair and report

accurately what the Pope says—especially considering they have a variety of axes to grind.  Still there is the issue of what is fair and accurately reported and what is not.  One knows the Pope is never going to say abortion is a viable option or the Christian model of family should be given over to more modern, enlightened conceptions.  But what about economics?  Does he even know what he is talking about?  Or does he and the press have no idea what he actually is saying?

[As many are surprised to find out, many of the doubts and criticisms Francis has been making have been bouncing around Conservative circles for years.  While Anglo-American Conservatives lean toward free market capitalism, they are not purely so.  A good indication of this is Irving Kristol’s Two Cheers for Capitalism.  (Note that he withholds one cheer.)

One major objections is that, while Conservatives are all for the creative nature of capitalism, they are less than enthusiastic for many of its destructive properties—particularly to human community (in the social sense), tradition, and family.

Another is moral and compassionate.  William F. Buckley himself advocated what he called Christian economics/capitalism.  He set up a particular example to show what he meant.  Suppose a disaster fell on the land and you were left with the one good, uncontaminated well.  Your neighbors are thirsty and are in bad need for water.  Under capitalism, one should be free to charge as much as you can get in selling buckets of your water to your neighbors.  But as a faithful Christian, you should, indeed must, instead give it away.  In order words, capitalism with moral limits, love, and compassion for one’s neighbor.  How different would our present condition be now if our movers and shakers had followed even a little notion of this?]

So, we’ll see eventually what to make of this Pope.  Turkey or Saint?