Fr. John Trugilio wrote an interesting article recently on the uCatholic blog called The Pope and Rush Limbaugh. Apparently, the conservative commentator is not very fond of Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, and he likened our Pope to a communist. Fr. John fired back with the following quotes:
Pope Francis did not criticize unfettered capitalism; he used the phrase unfettered consumerism….Capitalism is an economic and political ideology, whereas consumerism is a personal and individual ideology. The former is focused on a free market; the latter is obsessed with the acquisition of goods in and of themselves….
Fr. John goes on to say what we all know – “human beings are not perfect.”
Original sin affects everyone, and some people, be they CEOs, CFOs, bankers or brokers, sometimes make bad choices that produce bad effects that cause great harm to many innocent people. I know of no conservative or liberal, Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian who would advocate the repeal of laws barring insider trading.
Then, in his defense of the Pope, Fr. John makes the following simple statement:
We need laws to maintain some parameters on banks and stock brokers to protect people from abuse and exploitation. Republicans and Democrats dispute the length, breadth and depth of such legal regulations, but even a free market has some borders that cannot be ignored. Limited government is still very different from no government. Some, even if minimal, legislation is needed since not everyone acts prudently or fairly or for pristine motives.
Regnum Christi members Nicholas V. Vakkur and Zulma J. Herrera-Vakkur would likely argue that solution is not nearly enough. In their new book, Corporate Governance Regulation: How Poor Management is Destroying the Global Economy, they discuss how enacting legislation will far from address the needs of our current world economy. (Click here to read an article on the RC website about their book.)
The Vakkurs discuss the dire need for no less than a social paradigm shift, which goes way beyond a “little regulation.” The couple discusses how a literal return to virtue and ethics in our world is the only thing that can change the disastrous course our world is on.
It is a daunting and overwhelming task. How can little you and me change the world?
One soul at a time, I would say. Changing the world, with God’s help, can be as simple as looking at the man in the mirror (a link to one of my past blogs on the subject.) Once that heart is changed, you and I can see clearly enough to start removing the “splinters” from our children’s eyes, our friends’ eyes and our neighbors’ eyes.
It took a long time to get where we are today, and it will take a long time to change things. Let’s get started. Didn’t Jesus say that, in this era of the Holy Spirit, we will do even greater things than Him?
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12)
What better time than Advent, as we await the one that can give us the new hearts we need?
Jesus, help us to bring the Joy of the Gospel to our needy world!
