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Pope's Social Encyclical Spells Good News for Economic Recovery

Posted by Mike on Sunday, July 12, 2009 10:11:37 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Benedict XVI recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate heralds a global economic recovery in the near future. The encyclical's completion was delayed over a year because of the world financial debacle. Benedict offers helpful suggestions for restructuring the world's economy which will benefit rich and poor alike.

The gist of the message is for man to organize business and financial activities using a holistic approach which takes into account all aspects of the person, not just material gain or profit. The State no longer has as much sway in the global economy. The traditional divides between the private and public sectors, and between enterprises for profit and for non-profit, are to a large extent no longer applicable. New forms of business organizations involving cooperative agreements are now competing within the market economy.

Benedict warns of catastrophic results unless the world economy becomes structured to serve man through authentic integral human development. This means that workers must themselves have a sense of ownership with regard to their productive resources. Furthermore, there must be a deep respect for the dignity of the person and of human life, as well as staying in touch with spiritual values to make the system work.

In a nutshell, it does not do any good in the long run to allow the rich to draw profits at the expense of the poor or the world's environment. Economic growth is a shared responsibility at all levels. Charity is needed within the framework of accepting the truth about man's nature and existence in accordance with a providential plan.
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Why Punish Murder of Unborn?

Posted by Mike on Saturday, May 09, 2009 1:18:05 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
In the cosmic order of things, the tragedy is not so much that unborn children are killed, daresay anyone is killed, but that society allows the killing to happen. It is something less than human not to respect the dignity of the human person. Killing without just cause is the supreme form of denying another person's dignity. There is nothing anyone can do, except God Himself, to resurrect the dead. But what does killing of innocent human beings do to the killer? What does it do to the society?

The State of Illinois has taken into custody Drew Peterson on suspicion of causing one or more deaths. Does this bring any of the dead wives back to life? No. Killing any innocent human being is a hateful thing to do. If society does not punish murder, we are all the worse off, and society becomes itself hateful and hate filled.

On the human plane, there is nothing short of human reason to make a society of love better than a society of hate. The haters simply deny truth, and deny reason which always seeks truth. Whether one admits it or not, this is a human act.

God does have the final word in all of this. That is why men punish those who violate the dignity of the human person.
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Beyond Capitalism

Posted by Mike on Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:24:18 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
All government decisions must always be informed by moral considerations.  Life in society is conditioned according to whether or not our laws are based upon moral truth, or are instead used solely to generate revenue for the greedy in society.  Our nation's forefathers understood that to govern wisely, the members of society must adhere to moral principles.  Since morality is based upon truth, religion plays a key role in forming consciences as a safeguard of the truth.  Not all religions are equal.  There can be only one true religion since God is One, not many.  To the extent that society bases its laws on the truth which is preserved for each generation in the Christian religion, only to that extent will a nation be governed well and justly in our time.

Capitalism as an economic system has evolved over time.  It is a mistake to look back nostalgically to bygone days and defend capitalism on that basis.  Capitalism exists where society values and protects property.  However, when laws do not conform to objective reality, then the safeguards for protection of property fall apart.  Individuals lose their security of person and property.

In moving beyond the capitalistic economic model, we must be careful to always adhere to truth.  This means conformity with the Divine Person of Christ. 

Society can be fooled into following one mortal man which would create a form of fascism.  Our people must be on guard against this pitfall of power.  Rather we must strive to always move forward under the banner of Christ.  We should work to remove the inequalities of wealth distribution through solidarity with the poor in America and particularly in the Western Hemisphere.  We can also learn from the countries of the world that have gone before us through the errors of central planning, particularly the lessons from Germany and the nations of central and eastern Europe formerly under communist domination.

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