>Latin America File: Pope Benjamin XVI in Brazil: Marxism source of region’s woes; pontiff perpetuates Vatican’s ambiguous position on communism

>The Roman Catholic Church-State’s position on communism has been ambiguous since at least the pontificate of John XXIII. On the one hand, the Vatican “condemns” Marxism in high-profile conferences and slaps the wrist of the occasional liberation theologian. On the other hand, we have documented from Catholic social teaching, official pronouncements, and news releases: the papacy’s support for Marxist economic analysis, world government, and mixed economies; Cuban Tyrant Fidel Castro’s praise for Pope John Paul II; the free consulting services that priests and monks like Francois Houtart and Frei Betto offer to the international communist movement; the exhortations that the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan hierarchies have given to the faithful to submit to the neo-communist regimes in those countries; the Brazilian hierarchy’s logistical and ideological support for the leftist World Social Forum; and the logistical and moral support that the US Catholic hierarchy gives to the illegal alien invasion of that country.

Pictured above: On May 13, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI delivered the opening address of the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida, in Aparecida, 165 kilometres outside Sao Paulo. This appearance marks the end of the pope’s five-day visit to Red Brazil.

Promulgated in 1963, Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris, for example, paints the communist project known as the United Nations in glowing hues: “It is therefore Our earnest wish that the United Nations Organization may be able progressively to adapt its structure and methods of operation to the magnitude and nobility of its tasks. May the day be not long delayed when every human being can find in this organization an effective safeguard of his personal rights; those rights, that is, which derive directly from his dignity as a human person, and which are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable.”

The same pandering to communism occurs in Pope Benedict’s new book Jesus of Nazareth (Doubleday, 2007): “Karl Marx describes man’s alienation in a drastic way; although by limiting his reasoning to the material sphere he fails to reach the true depths of alienation, he nevertheless provides a clear image of the man who falls victim to the robbers. If we apply it to the globalized world, we see how the populations of Africa who have been robbed and plundered concern us. The wealthy have stripped the poor bare and have wounded them spiritually. Instead of giving them their God, the God that is close to us in Christ, and welcome from their traditions all that is dear and great … we brought them the cynicism of a world without God, in which only power and profit matters.”

Somehow the most recent papal condemnation of communism rings hollow and old accusations, raised in part by traditionalist Catholics, that communists infiltrated the Roman Curia decades ago acquire greater credibility.

Pope Benedict Blamed Latin America’s Problems on Marxism
May 14, 2007

Marxism is a sytem that once in power brings destruction on economy, environment and the human spirit, Pope Benedict XVI said during the conference in Aparecida, Brazil.

In addition to lashing out at Marxism, Pope Benedict called on the regional bishops to shape a new generation of catholic political leaders in an effort to step up the church’s influence in Latin America. The Pontiff also urged to oppose abortions legalization and the use of contraceptives.

During his five-day tour to Brazil, Pope Benedict and Latin American bishops deliberated on poverty, social inequality, spread of drugs and violence in the region.

Pope Benedict last arrived in Brazil in 1990, when he was a cardinal. Of interest is that his predecessor, Pope John Paul rushed to Latin America in three months after becoming the Pontiff of all Roman Catholics, while Pope Benedict waited for two years to visit the region that is the home to roughly a half of Catholics of the world.

Source: Kommersant