Pope Francis continues to make conservatives queasy and uneasy by stating that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality. He once again called on income equality and asked nations to narrow the wealth gap.
(Reuters) - Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.
In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, marked around the world on January 1, he also called for sharing of wealth and for nations to shrink the gap between rich and poor, more of whom are getting only "crumbs".
"The grave financial and economic crises of the present time ... have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy," he said.
"The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles," he said.
Francis, who was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday, has urged his own Church to be more fair, frugal and less pompous and to be closer to the poor and suffering.
His message will be sent to national leaders, international organizations such as the United Nations, and NGO's.
Titled "Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway to Peace", the message also attacked injustice, human trafficking, organized crime and the weapons trade as obstacles to peace.
Anger at multi-million payouts for executives has swept across the globe as the economic crisis has deepened and the gap between the super-rich and the poor has widened.
The Pope has consistently attacked the wealth gap and that's a beautiful thing. In America the rise of the 1% has been incredible while the 99%ers are struggling as usual. The Economist writes:
But the main message is a grim one. Most of the growth is going to an extraordinarily small share of the population: 95% of the gains from the recovery have gone to the richest 1% of people, whose share of overall income is once again close to its highest level in a century. The most unequal country in the rich world is thus becoming even more so.
Even Fox Business is covering it. Income Analysis Shows Widening Gap. This is a very important issue and stance for the Pope to take. He's got a lot of work ahead of him if he's going to ever make a dent to the psyche of the rich.
And here's a quick message to Glenn Beck, who is a 1%er. These would appear to be prepared remarks and not off-the-cuff tomfoolery from the new Pontiff. Will this push Glenn Beck off the deep end again and send him on one of his "the Pope is a Marxist" riffs?
“He makes me a little concerned on his Marxist tendencies,” he explained. “When you’re not on prepared remarks, Marxism starts to creep into your language. When you’re asked questions by people, you start to say, ‘Look, I don’t want to hurt you, I just think that redistribution of wealth isn’t so bad.’
Such forward-thinking radical commie leftism would get you banned from most D.C. cocktail parties and cable news circuits.
