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May 22, 2013
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 The Vatican Meets the OccupiersPosted on Oct 26, 2011
Will we soon see a distinguished-looking older man in long white robes walking among the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in New York’s Zuccotti Park? Is Pope Benedict XVI joining the protest movement? Well, yes, and no. Yes, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a strong and thoughtful critique of the global financial system this week that paralleled many of the criticisms of unchecked capitalism that are echoing through lower Manhattan and cities around the world. The report spoke of “the primacy of being over having” and of “ethics over the economy,” plus “embracing the logic of the global common good.” In a knock against those who oppose government economic regulation, the council emphasized “the primacy of politics—which is responsible for the common good—over the economy and finance.” It commented favorably on a financial transactions tax and supported an international authority to oversee the global economy. But Vatican officials were careful to say that their report was not a direct response to the worldwide demonstrations. “It is a coincidence that we share some views,” said Bishop Mario Toso, secretary of the council. “But after all, these are proposals that are based on reasonableness.” Advertisement Moreover, the Vatican office’s intervention shows that those protesting against a broken and unjust financial system are not expressing some marginal point of view. They are highlighting worries shared by many, including the Roman Catholic Church. To challenge what the global markets have wrought is not extreme. It reflects, as Bishop Toso said, “reasonableness.” Needless to say, Catholic conservatives were not happy with the document, and did all they could to minimize its importance. George Weigel, the conservative Catholic writer, took to National Review’s blog to denigrate the Pontifical Council as “a rather small office in the Roman Curia” and to insist that its document “doesn’t speak for the pope, it doesn’t speak for ‘the Vatican,’ and it doesn’t speak for the Catholic Church.” Oh really? Then for whom does it speak? Weigel wasn’t done. “This brief document from the lower echelons of the Roman Curia no more aligns ‘the Vatican,’ the pope, or the Catholic Church with Occupy Wall Street than does the Nicene Creed,” he wrote. “Those who suggest it does are either grossly ill-informed or tendentious to a point of irresponsibility.” My, my. It is always entertaining for those of us who are liberal Catholics to watch our conservative Catholic friends try to wriggle around the fact that on the matters of social justice and the economy, Catholic social teaching is, by any measure, “progressive.” Conservatives regularly condemn liberal “Cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose among the church’s teachings. But the conservatives so often skip the parts of the moral buffet involving peace, social justice and what Pope John Paul II called the “idolatry of the market.” As it happens, the Pontifical Council is no mere “small office.” It has been a pioneer over the years in Catholic thinking about solidarity and justice. And this document is firmly rooted in papal teaching going back to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II. Pope Benedict’s 2009 encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” spoke explicitly of the need for a global political authority to keep watch on an increasingly integrated world economy. Inside-the-church politics aside, the Pontifical Council’s document is important because it reflects an ethical approach to economics shared well beyond Catholic circles. In particular, the council grapples intelligently with the problem of how the economy can be subject to reasonable rules when the nation-states that once enforced such regulations have less and less power, given how swiftly and easily capital moves. The document describes the benefits of globalization as well as its costs, and it does not pretend that establishing transnational structures will be easy. It addresses the importance of “democratic legitimacy” and speaks of “shared government” rather than some top-down world authority. “We should not be afraid to propose new ideas, even if they might destabilize pre-existing balances of power that prevail over the weakest,” the document declares. “They are a seed thrown to the ground that will sprout and hurry towards bearing fruit.” Let’s hope so. If our religious leaders won’t challenge us to love mercy and do justice, who will? E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.  TAGS:
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By Ceorl, October 30, 2011 at 8:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Hardly one week has gone by after President Obama’s announcement “we will leave Iraq” and Mr. Dionne’s “hosanna, he has ended the war” that the same President announces that the troops will “come home” but “roost somewhere in the Middle East”. Why Common Dreams continues to publish articles by this man and his Robinson sidekick who have been deceived by their idol over-and-over-again is far beyond my comprehension.
Report thisBy gerard, October 28, 2011 at 12:35 pm Link to this comment
There’s nothing quite as radical as NOT fighting back. Yet it’s time has come. Don’t just stand there. Do the best thing. Which is ....?
Report this1.Think. If you hit back, the “other” guy gets madder.
2.If the other guy hits you again, etc.? Nobody can stop until someone is the last man standing.
3.Who wants to be the last human standing to fight the same fight again and again. Eventually, who wants to be the last man standing on earth?
4.Therefore? Occupy violence. Don’t use it. Don’t advocate it. Don’t glorify it. Don’t teach it. It’s dead. Wrap it up and bury it.
5.Alternatives? Millions of creative, inventive ways to avoid it. Discover the causes—frequently injustice of some kind. Treat those causes before they erupt in anger. Prevent escalation. Don’t antagonize. Be calm. Allay the opponent’s fear. Refuse to injure or kill. Suggest solutions from which both (or all) sides benefit. Encourage open exchange of different points of view. Work together to find answers where everybody “wins” and nobody “loses.” Step back. Really listen. Reach out. Shake hands. P.S. It ain’t easy but it’s much wiser and more humane.
By Robespierre115, October 27, 2011 at 5:16 pm Link to this comment
“If anyone wants a very interesting counterpoint to the left-right, socialist-capitalist (false) dichotomies.” As the crisis grows that concept of “false dichotomies” will probably start to dissolve or at least find it harder to defend itself. Postmodernism is getting a big kick in the balls as people do realize the difference between socialist theory and capitalist theory, as the Mexican author Paco Ignacio Taibo II once said, “the centre is nothing.”
People should blow the dust off works by Bakunin, Kropotkin and Rosa Luxemburg. Radical times call for radical ideas.
Report thisBy entropy2, October 27, 2011 at 1:59 pm Link to this comment
@omygodnotagain—glad you mentioned Rerum Novarum. If anyone wants a very interesting counterpoint to the left-right, socialist-capitalist (false) dichotomies, check out distributism and the works of G.K. Chesterton. Even if you don’t care for religion (hell, even if you downright HATE religion), the principles embodied in distributism (decentralization, community-based economies, justice and dignity for working people, etc.) provide some genuine alternatives to the corporate-state.
http://distributistreview.com/mag/
Report thisBy PeopleOVERgreed, October 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm Link to this comment
Interesting politics at work here. As more and more of the younger generation(s) see the Catholic church as a legacy byproduct of the past century. Many of the Occupy Wall Streeters disagree with religious intollarence and a host of organized religious political stances. This shrewd, but, poorly vailed attempt to alley themselves with the OWS movement originates mixed signals by the Cathloic church. Especially during a time of well share we say the Catholic “brand” is not as rock solid as it once used to be. Given the world-wide pedophilia scandal and all. Can you say: “over-rotation”.
Report thisBy Queenie, October 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm Link to this comment
Wow. I would think (and be proven wrong) that the Vatican would side with the other non-taxpaying behemoth type corporations. Who’d a thunk it?
Report thisBy Queenie, October 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm Link to this comment
Wow. I would think (and be proven wrong) that the Vatican would sides with the other non-taxpaying behemoth type corporations. Who’d a thunk it?
Report thisBy omygodnotagain, October 27, 2011 at 10:19 am Link to this comment
The Vatican has for over 120 years supported just working condition one has only to read the 1891 document Rerum Novarum. This is no surprise, hell they have schools in the poorest neighborhoods, social out reach and hospitals in the most blighted urban centers.
Report thisBy gerard, October 27, 2011 at 10:19 am Link to this comment
Then there’s Thomas Merton and the Berrigan brothers, to name a few who not only speak, but act.
Report thisBy berniem, October 27, 2011 at 10:02 am Link to this comment
And to think such pronouncements should come from the creation of Benito Mussolini; he of modern fascism!
Report thisBy rwmenser, October 27, 2011 at 9:44 am Link to this comment
Mr. Pope knows a little about economics especially when it comes down to reaching down deep on Sunday’s when the donation baskets are passed around. Spread that wealth out among the followers. That’s the only way of keeping the Catholic coffers at pace with or in front of inflation.
Report thisBy Reverend Unruh, October 27, 2011 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the
Report thispoor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
By shadesofgrey, October 27, 2011 at 7:38 am Link to this comment
Occupy Rome a few weeks ago was a little too close to home, eh, Pontiff?
Report thisBy balkas, October 27, 2011 at 7:37 am Link to this comment
benedict has [as i ‘knew’ he wld] only inspected the roof of a house. and
so will every rabbi, mullah/imam/priest do.
i expected that the ‘religion’ wld not support the 99% or any change
whatever that wld lessen sacerdotal class’ importance, eclat, selflaudation,
power over their serfs.
and it makes no diff if one is a mullah, rabbi, priest, reverend, elder—all
of them wld command their sheeple to vote for people like mussolini,
hitler, truman, sarkozy, obama and all like-minded people.
which means we will experience more wars for land/poverty/exploitation
and greater control of the planet/its people by the clero-plutocratic
unimental econo-military-monetary-political party.
[yes folks, there is also a war for poverty/drugs and never against them]
this political party may not yet control how u eat, breathe, etc., but it does
control even what u eat and breathe—and whom to kill and whom not to
kill, not even to mention.
btw, does one think that clergy and plutocrats support two political
parties? the ogrish IT [or ogrish THEM: priestly and plutocratic class]
supports and votes always for the their POLITICAL party; i.e., ‘democratic’
one. [the best system yet devised for controlling the plebes]
or to make it even clearer, the IT always votes for all congresspeople. and
all of them give israel a standing ovation everytime the clero-plutocratic
party gives them the nod to do that.
ok, maybe not all congrespeople and everytime stand up and cheer israel
Report thisand goad it into ever greater paroxisism. i think there may be one or two
who do not do that everytime or ever? tnx
By Robespierre115, October 26, 2011 at 11:28 pm Link to this comment
The Vatican is simply trying to seem relevant in an age when it is becoming increasingly irrelevant. This is the same Vatican that condemned the Liberation Theology priests who participated in revolutionary uprisings in Central America in the 1980s and did nothing when nuns and priests were raped and killed by US-trained death squads in El Salvador.
Ironically these are times when it would be interesting to revisit ORIGINAL ideas from the Radical Reformation including the Anabaptists and the German Peasant’s War.
Verso recently published a collection of writings by Thomas Muntzer, a Peasants’ War leader who was considered a key proto-socialist revolutionary by Engels and others:
http://www.amazon.com/Sermon-Princes-Revolutions-Thomas-Muntzer/dp/1844673200/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319696748&sr=1-1
Good info on Muntzer at 3:35 in this documentary clip. This is the stuff they won’t teach you in Sunday School:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slDxjObJPuY
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