MikeLigalig.com

By Elfren S. Cruz (The Philippine Star) | Updated December 26, 2013 - 12:00am

 
When Pope Francs sent a public message, through his first Papal Exhortation, that he does not believe that the “trickle down theories, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness, in the world,” he is inviting accusation of being against capitalism. In fact, Rush Limbaugh, a leading American political commentator, dismissed the message as “pure Marxism coming out of the pope.”

The papal exhortation is an official statement issued by the Vatican. It ranks below the formal encyclicals which are used to state the position of the Catholic Church on major issues. The first encyclical was issued in 1841. But exhortation is above the level of a simple letter.

His first Papal Exhortation is a 238-page document entitled Joy of the Gospel. Pope Francis is believed to be laying down the major themes for his tenure as the head of the Church.

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Pope Francis is describing an economic environment that has existed for as long as the history of mankind. This exploitation of the poor and the weak by the rich and the powerful has been the source of revolutions and crusades for as long as man has lived in societies. And long before capitalism was introduced by Adam Smith and his ilk. 

But the Pope seems to have singled out the free market economy as the primary culprit for today’s economic ills. Here is what he says:

“In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion, at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.

The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle, they fail to move us.”


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In the Philippines, those wielding economic power are the 50 to 100 richest families who control major family business conglomerates, the corporate managers of the multinationals operating here, and political dynasties that have accumulated economic wealth due to their political power.

If we are not supposed to trust in the “goodness” of these people, then the question is who do we trust? Who then should wield economic power in this country? We have learned from the bitter lessons of the Marcos and Arroyo years that we cannot trust government to wield economic power since the result was crony capitalism and systemic corruption. So who do we trust? And what system will replace the present one based on the “idolatry of money”?

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