Pope Benedict has released a new Encyclical Letter entitled "Charity in Truth." This along with his recent meeting with President Obama has garnered him much attention in the media over the past week. Unfortunately many are misinterpreting the Pope to further their own political agendas. For instance, many in the media (mostly Democrats) are misconstruing the Pope's statements in order to claim that the Church is "against capitalism" or that the Pope wants a one world government with more socialism and more welfare. This is all non-sense.
As Deacon Keith Fournier writes of the recent Encyclical,
"The Social Teaching is neither “left” nor “right”, neither “liberal” nor “conservative” - within the contemporary politicized use of those words. The Church ‘walks the way of the person’ and is an “expert in humanity” because she continues the work of the Lord Himself in whom we find revealed the fullness of the human person."
It may not be liberal or conservative but I would say that much of the Catholic teachings are very much libertarian! Just think about it - the Vatican is the only State in the world that does not fund itself through coercion. The revenues are collected voluntarily, by donation from the Church's followers. This by itself makes it the most libertarian State in the world.
Also, the Church heavily stresses Natural Law, which is the same basis upon which much of libertarian theory is constructed. Take for example this recent quote from Pope Benedict XVI:
"The Church has always affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they may have in various cultural contexts, are to be upheld and accorded universal recognition because they are inherent in the very nature of man, who is created in the image and likeness of God."
Without the Catholic Church reference, this almost sounds like Thomas Jefferson. Claims that the Pope supports government rulers, socialism, or any other form of organized coercion are simply false. The Church teaches that truth and human rights pre-date governments. They come to us in a natural way from our creator and can never be falsified anywhere at any time, especially not by the positive rights decreed by governments.
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