Socially unjust

From the Times Online-

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust”, according to Vatican sources.

In his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – the pontiff will denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole.

It will focus on humanity’s social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system “regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination”, Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday.

The encyclical, drafted during his recent holiday in the mountains of northern Italy, takes its cue from Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), issued 40 years ago. In it the pontiff focused on “those peoples who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance and are looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilisation”. He called on the West to promote an equitable world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

This week the Italian centre-left Government of Romano Prodi began a concerted crackdown on tax evaders, saying that it would target individuals with second homes and other signs of “conspicuous wealth”. If the black economy is included, unpaid taxes amount to 27 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product.

I blogged a week ago about the Italian Prime Minister's request for the Catholic Church's help with those who evade taxes. Apparently Pope Benedict got the message.

Regretfully I have to say this. Pope Benedict has lost his marbles or gone senile. This is just the latest, and may I add sad, proof. First we'll address a world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

It's already been tried. The name for it is communism. How free is a society and people that lives under the control of such a government. If he was still alive, Pope John Paul II could have given Benedict the answer.

Instead I call on Captain Ed to do it.

Benedict should take a lesson from his predecessor, who came from an economic system that theoretically based itself of "social justice". John Paul II understood what happens in systems where the state manages of economic systems for their idea of social justice -- and no other management can be possible without the profit motive. Once profit gets removed from economic systems as a regulator for investment and control -- i.e., the one who invests and profits makes the decisions controlling the investment and use of the profit -- it takes an autocracy to decide the goals of investment for the purposes of social justice.

It didn't work out well in Poland for John Paul, nor in Soviet Russia and China, where millions died in famines thanks to ridiculous central agricultural planning. State-run economies always claim to champion social justice and equitable distribution.

If anyone needs an example of how unjust a Communist regime can be today, all we need look at is the state of North Korea. The people of the Hermit Kingdom have no profits, they also have no food or freedom either.

Could I remind the Pope how just the country of East Germany was?

BERLIN - The agency that manages the records of former East Germany's dreaded secret police has uncovered an order for border guards to fire on escaping citizens that is far more explicit than others on record, an official said in remarks published Saturday.

Though the official East German border regulations said use of a firearm was to be considered an "extreme measure in the use of force," the Oct. 1, 1973 order to border guards from the Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, is much less reserved, Magdeburg's Volksstimme newspaper reported.

"Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of," the order instructed.

Before the 1990 reunification of Germany, more than 1,000 people were killed on the eastern side of the highly fortified border as they tried to escape to the West, including more than 125 at the Berlin Wall, which was erected in 1961.

Over 1,000 people died seeking their freedom to profit in the West. How just was the East German government who murdered them. You'd think Pope Benedict would see that. He having grown up during the days of Nazi Germany.

Another recent example of how Pope Benedict is losing it, is this news.

ROME (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI met briefly this week with a Polish priest who has been accused of making anti-Jewish comments.

Photos showing the pope at his summer residence with the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, along with two other Polish priests, were published in Polish newspapers Tuesday.

The Vatican has not commented on the meeting. But a Vatican official confirmed Tuesday that the three were brought to the pope, along with other pilgrims, after the pontiff's weekly public blessing Sunday in Castel Gandolfo, his summer home.

Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbyists.

Rydzyk is a jerk. It isn't alleged what he said about Jews, but fact. As leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict shouldn't have anything to do with this priest, instead the pontiff meets with Rydzyk. Do you think that conveys a message that Rydzyk's anti-semitism is acceptable.

Don't forget Pope Benedict's remarks on Muhammad from 2006.

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

I've blogged before about how remote the church leaders are from their flock, but the Pope I feel isn't just out of touch. If we were just talking one example of poor judgment, we could say Pope Benedict had made a mistake,(I don't believe in the infallibility of the Pope. There was just one perfect one, and look what happened to him) or maybe the reporting by the Times is off in some way. Sadly, we have three examples of how 'lost' Pope Benedict is. The day for a new man to rule the Catholic Church can't come too soon.

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