8 Comments On Wednesday, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, Acton’s President and co-founder, offered his initial comments on “Evangelii Gaudium,” the Apostolic Exhortation released on November 26 by Pope Francis. This morning, Rev. Sirico spent some time extending his thoughts during the course of a couple of radio interviews.
In his first interview of the day, Rev. Sirico appeared on The Chris Salcedo Show on The Blaze Radio Network:
Later on, Rev. Sirico joined host Larry Kudlow on 77 WABC in New York City for a nearly 40 minute discussion of the document, which is well worth your time to listen to in full:
Father Sirico thanks for getting the truth out. Just listened to the audio and you were outstanding in explaining this encyclical.
I don’t agree, but no matter, the Pope is not making an economic argument. His point in spiritual, and very much in harmony with the teachings of the New Testament.
As an avid supporter of the Institute, I was dismayed by Fr, Sirico’s gratuitous PC dismissal of Rush Limbaugh’s description of Pope Francis’s economic remarks as warmed-over Marxism. I think Rush has it right. You don’t have to be a defender of Liberation theology nor a critic of the modern welfare state to have been seduced by Marx’s appeal to envy, sloth, and pride, as Fr. Sirico mentioned in his video interview.
Are you saying the teachings of the NT are specific about an specific economic system?
But has Rush has been appalling in his own dismissal of Pope Francis.
Only indirectly. Jesus endorsed the Torah, but of course as God he wrote it. And the Torah is the basis for capitalism. The “image of God” and dominion verses, plus “thou shalt not steal” and the many verses protecting property make property sacred. The government of Israel in the Torah, the only government Jesus every created, was a libertarian dream. He gave it no executive or legislative branch, not police, taxes, or standing army. It has only courts to decide disputes, the law of God and priests to teach the law.
Of course people always bring up Jubilee, but the Torah includes Jubilee under moral law. There was religious law, civil law and moral law. The courts did not enforce moral or religious law; they left that to God. They dealt only with civil law. And there were only 635 ordinances in the combined religious, civil and moral law.
On top of that, Jubilee was not wealth redistribution as socialists claim. That is a superficial reading. Jubilee was the equivalent of a mortgage burning and a limit to how much poor people could borrow.