
Laudato si
The Salvation of the
Economy
vs.
The Economy of
Salvation
If
the Pope pontificates on
economics,
we must ask ourselves, can an economist pontificate on
the Faith? “Of course not”, you say, “The province of expertise embodied
in an economist does not qualify him as a theologian. It’s not his job
description. He may have opinions on the matter but that is all
they are: “opinions.” By the same reasoning,
neither can a pope pontificate on economics. Its not his
job description. His job description is spiritual: proclaiming
the Gospel and saving souls. In fact, his Master clearly states that
“His Kingdom is not of this world.” (“Regnum
Meum non est de hoc mundo”). An economist’s job description
is temporal: to research and analyze economic issues:
it precisely pertains to the world, matter, money, and financial assets.
Would you go to Warren Buffet for spiritual advice on moral matters?
Would you go the pope for economic advice concerning your retirement
options? Really? It is a matter of competency and invested authority.
Would you attend a seminar featuring Warren Buffett on the topic of
saving your soul and going to Heaven? Would you go to one featuring
Francis on organizing your work strategy and finances? You would cock
your head in bewilderment and politely decline both, no?. Or do I have
a deal for you on ocean-front property in Nebraska!
In the one, the Economy of Salvation, we have a unique Catholic
concept concerned with the redemption and salvation of man through the
providential ordering of all things necessary to this end. An admirably
concise definition is provided below:
“It is the elements and resources revealed by God as necessary for the
sake of our salvation through God’s revelation and communication of
Himself to mankind. It refers to God's creation of all things, and of
His governance of the world, especially with regards to Jesus’ part
in salvation, which includes His mission being fulfilled by His Body,
the Church, and through the sacraments.” (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Salvation
)
In the other, Economics, we have from the same source, a definition
even more concise:
“the social science that studies the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics)
The differences, we see, could not be more distinct. They are ontological
in nature — that is to say, they are concerned with the “being”, the
substance, of each understood as “economies”. The distinction is nothing
less than metaphysical. For further clarity let us say that we predicate
the same title to two different men with the same same name, both of
whom we refer to as: “Doctor Smith”. Doctor John Smith is a physician.
Doctor Joseph Smith is a professor of economics. Because we make no
overt distinction in title does not mean that the two are identical
in function and taxonomy. The professor could not perform an appendectomy,
and the physician could not teach Adam Smith’s, The Wealth of Nations.
In other words, the two “Economies” that Francis conflates are really
quite different, both in scope and purpose.
Confusing our mothers
Until the pontificate
of Francis we, as Catholics, had two holy Mothers:
-
Our Holy Mother
the Church
-
Our Holy Mother,
Mary
-
...
and now “our holy Mother Earth”?
Pope Francis insists that we:
-
“Love the land
as Mother earth”
-
“Make alliance
with Mother Earth”
“This sister
[Earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted
on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods which God
has endowed her with. We have come to see ourselves as her lord
and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present
in our hearts,
wounded by sin, is also reflected in the soil, in the water, in
the air, and in all forms of life.”
This, however,
is not how God Himself saw it from the beginning:
“Let us make man to our image and
likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of
the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the
whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon
the earth. And God created man to his own image: to
the image of God he created him: male and female he created
them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply,
and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes
of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures
that move upon the earth.” (Genesis 1.26-28)
Francis takes Exception:
-
“We human beings
are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven
together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which
also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon,
brother river and mother earth.”
-
“One thing
is certain: we can no longer turn our backs on reality, on our brothers
and sisters, on Mother Earth,” (speech at the
Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador)
-
And that,
“The system of production and distribution
of food must be radically rethought.”
(we do not know from what “school of theology” this derives, but
in the way of structure and policy it is remarkably similar to,
if not a template drawn from, Marxism.)
If much of this is reminiscent of New Age thought and the culture and
encroaching Communism of the “groovy 60’s”, we are at least inclined
to wonder at the correspondence.
We pray for Francis, that God lead him and guide him in His ways
— and not the ways of the world.
In our humble — and perhaps even mistaken opinion — the last truly holy
and absolutely faithful pope was Pope Pius X. The Seat of Peter did
not expire after his death. Whether or not it has been heroically Catholic
in the last 50 years is, in our opinion, very questionable. The Church
has suffered much and terribly as a consequence of Vatican II. But just
as Pope Pius X sat upon the Cathedra that Honorius and Alexander
stained, another Pope of heroic Catholic sanctity may await us and restore
what had been — once again, in our opinion — illicitly deprived of us.
In that sense we
are, indeed, Faithful to the Sacred Deposit of Faith entrusted to the
Holy see in Rome when it is exercised as such in conspectu Dei,
and in complete continuity and agreement with that 2000 year Deposit
of Faith — which is susceptible to being (illicitly) ignored or
prescinded from to the ends of man, but from which no one can deprive
Catholics — and which none can abolish.
Remember the admonition of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy:
“For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the
truth, but will be turned unto fables.” ( 2 Tim. 4:3-4)
Remember also the deceits of the devil:
“For our wrestling is not against
flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers
of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in
the high places.” (Eph. 6.11-12)
Geoffrey K.
Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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editor@boston-catholic-journal.com

Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
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