Over at Holy Souls Hermitage there is a great shot of Father playing with his pet Praying Mantis. (Actually, I think it just wandered by.)
I have sympathy for him since he lives on donations. I am grateful to him because he says Masses for and prays for priests.
I think this thing might even give Mulier Fortis‘s cats a go around. BTW… she is now keeping track of everything her little predators kill. Very cool.
As I understand it, two states have defense of marriage amendments for their state constitutions up for a vote in 2012: North Carolina and Minnesota. As I understand it, the amendment to defend true and natural marriage will not be nearly as much of an issue in N. Carolina as it will be in politically kooky Minnesota, my native place. (By the way, Minnesota isn’t politically kooky because it is my native place… I figured I better say that right here and now.)
What I think is going to happen is that huge money is going to pour into Minnesota from out of every dark hole and crack in order to defeat the amendment in a continuing effort to distort the definition of marriage. The Catholic bishops in Minnesota, with the leadership of Archbishop Nienstedt, have nailed their colors to the mast in promoting passage of this defense of marriage amendment. This is going to be a war.
I suspect that, much as money and activists poured into Wisconsin during the big labor/legislature battle, so too homosexual activists and their money will pour into Minnesota, since it is far more likely they can defeat true marriage there than in N. Carolina. Minnesota will become “ground zero” in this fight during this election cycle.
That’s just my guess.
In any event, we have to give Archbishop Nienstedt and the bishops of Minnesota strong support over the next 12 months.
That is why I was pleased to see this from The Catholic League:
MINNESOTA CATHOLICS PUSH MARRIAGE AMENDMENT
October 26, 2011Catholic League president Bill Donohue stands with Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt in his support for a state constitutional amendment on marriage:
The reason why Minnesotans will vote next year on the issue of a constitutional amendment affirming marriage, traditionally understood, is due to attempts to reconfigure this ancient social institution. For example, people excluded by nature from procreating are currently demanding the right to marry, winning sympathy in some courts. Catholics are being rallied by Archbishop John Nienstedt to support the marriage amendment partly because some of those on the other side, e.g., “Catholics for Marriage Equality MN,” are falsely promoting themselves as representing an authentic Catholic position.
Critics of the Church’s position on marriage are saying that Archbishop Nienstedt is being “divisive,” and does not represent what Catholics want; others are literally going off the rails.
All bishops are called to lead, not follow. Moreover, the latest survey of Catholics published in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) [aka Fishwrap] shows more support for Church teachings on same-sex marriage than on the death penalty. The bishops are opposed to both (though proscriptions against the death penalty are not absolute), yet this hasn’t persuaded the gay marriage advocates to demand that the bishops ratify the pro-death penalty sentiments of the rank-and-file. [It seems to me that the death-penalty point, while interesting, is not the real point to worry about. Enemies of marriage will accuse Catholics and others who support natural marriage as being similar to “racists”. They will, ironically, try to reframe the issue as one of civil rights.]
Not surprisingly, NCR recently published a piece by the former head of Catholic Charities in San Francisco calling bishops who uphold the Church’s teachings on marriage “villains”; he accused them of promoting “an atmosphere of ignorance and hate.” If they—and this includes NCR’s editors—really believe this to be true, then it’s time to do the manly thing and get out.
Finally, it is ironic that “Rainbow Sash” says Archbishop Nienstedt is guilty of abusing his authority — its members are known for such fascistic exercises as disrupting Mass at Communion.
Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org
WDTPRS kudos to The Catholic League.
WDTPRS stands with Bp. Nienstedt and the bishops of Minnesota in defense of true, natural marriage.
I have been on the road a lot so I haven’t been posting on the feeder activity.
Right now zillions of Robins are moving through, chowing down on all the berries and small fruit from the trees and bushes. They are heading south in great numbers.
There must have been a hundred of them here yesterday.
I am not sure who this is. I think it is Lincoln’s Sparrow on the way south from its summer haunts in Northern Canada. Just one that I have seen so far. [NB: I had meant to write FOX Sparrow. I am glad a commentator jumped in. I think he is right.]
There is a very tony Cardinal-ette hanging out today.
With a little sunlight. Makes you wonder if she uses some sort of mousse.
The birds assure me that they are always happy to take your donations. They eat like starving fiends and I get stuck saying Masses for their benefactors. Sheesh!
Actually, now that I think about it…. everybody wins that way, right?
“Secularizing trends, including the expropriation of Church goods and the elimination of privileges, frequently lead to “a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness.” – Benedict XVI in Freiburg, Germany.
For years I have been harping on a revitalization of our Catholic identity. There are indications that my concern was not misplaced.
We need to revitalize our Catholic identity. I believe this can only be done in tandem with a revitalization of our liturgical worship, especially through a wider use of the older, traditional forms of the Latin Rite.
At OSV this week there is a piece by Russell Shaw (OSV’s contributing editor) on the issue of religious freedom.
Are we seeing the beginning of religious persecution in America?
Catholic Church agencies are closing their doors under new laws, policies gutting conscience rightsBy Russell Shaw – OSV Newsweekly, 11/6/2011
[Quaeritur:] Is America on track for a religious freedom crisis generated by secularists in and out of government bent on pushing churches around on a variety of fronts? Fresh evidence strongly suggests that the answer is yes.
Take what’s been happening lately in Peoria, Ill. In early October, the Diocese of Peoria announced it was discontinuing Catholic Charities foster care services in reaction to a new law requiring state-funded programs to place children with unmarried couples living in civil unions. The diocese said Charities also would withdraw from all its state contracts, said to total $23 million annually.
“I have a responsibility to assure that Catholic Charities operates consistently with the teaching and values of the Church,” explained Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky.
Earlier, the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., also ended its foster care services. Three other Illinois dioceses — Belleville, Joliet and Springfield — are still fighting the new law in court.
National trend
The events in Illinois mirror a growing national trend. The ability of religious institutions to operate free from government pressure to violate their conscientious convictions has increasingly come under attack.
Repeatedly, the pressure has been brought to bear on churches on behalf of groups ranging same-sex couples to federal officials backing coverage for contraception and sterilization in religious employers’ health plans. In the eyes of the secular militants, the First Amendment rights of religious institutions are of diminished importance.
In Sept. 20 letter to President Barack Obama, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York protested recent administration moves aimed at various Catholic Church programs. Archbishop Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned of an impending “national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions” which he said would harm both sides. [I am glad to have read that point made by Archbp. Dolan. However, now that it has been made in writing and publicized, there must be a follow up. The USCCB cannot now do nothing or little.]
Amid these ominous signs, the eyes of people on both sides of the growing church-state confrontation are fixed on a Supreme Court case raising the issue of whether government or the churches have the authority to decide who is and isn’t a “minister” of religion.
The case (Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC) involves a former teacher in a Missouri Synod Lutheran school who says her rights were violated when she was fired in the wake of several contentious incidents after becoming sick. The Obama administration is backing the teacher in the dispute. At its heart is the so-called “ministerial exception” doctrine allowing churches to decide the “minister” question.
During oral argument of the case, Justice Stephen Breyer asked Leondra Kruger, an attorney representing the solicitor general of the United States, whether under her interpretation the Catholic Church still would be allowed to refuse to ordain women as priests. Kruger’s answer: “The government’s general interest in eradicating discrimination in the workplace is simply not sufficient to justify changing the way that the Catholic Church chooses its priests.”
[NB] Observers pointed out two unspoken assumptions underlying that: first, that the government does possess an authority to change the way the Church chooses priests that outweighs the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious free exercise; second, that the government might actually take that step if its determination to enforce antidiscrimination laws were to become great enough.
Few expect the Supreme Court to go that far — at least, not now. [For now.] For the present, the challenge facing the court is finding an acceptable balance between government protection of the rights of employees in church institutions and the constitutional right of churches to conduct their affairs without government interference. The decision could be one of the most important church-state rulings in years. It is likely by next spring.
Depending on what the Supreme Court says and how it says it, the outcome could have important consequences for other conflicts now under way or likely soon to be involving church-related schools, hospitals, social services and other programs.
[This is where a real battle will take place, especially in Minnesota this year. I suspect Minnesota, where an amendment in defense of marriage will be up for a vote in 2012, will evolve into a sort of “ground zero” much as the labor dispute in the Wisconsin legislature became a “ground zero” for big labor v state government.] Currently, too, much attention is directed to ongoing efforts by homosexual activists to expand the scope of legally recognized gay rights, including acceptance of homosexual relationships as marriages.
A bishops’ conference staff analysis of “recent federal threats to marriage” predicted that if the Obama administration succeeds in changing the law on behalf of gay marriage, “we would face lawsuits for supposed ‘discrimination’ in all areas where the Church operates in service to the common good, and where civil rights laws apply.” The analysis specifically noted employment, housing, education, and adoption services as areas likely to be targeted. [That, friends, is where this is headed.]
Silver lining
Reflecting the seriousness with which religious groups view these developments, the Catholic bishops’ conference has established a special committee and office on religious liberty.
The bishops will discuss emerging problems relating to religious liberty at their Nov. 14-16 general assembly in Baltimore.
If there’s a silver lining here, it may lie in something Pope Benedict XVI pointed to during his pastoral visit in September to Germany — his homeland and one of the most secularized nations in the West.
Speaking Sept. 25 in Freiburg, the pope said the historical record shows that “secularizing trends, including the expropriation of Church goods and the elimination of privileges, frequently lead to “a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness.”
“When the Church becomes less worldly,” he added, “her missionary witness shines more brightly. … The Church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world.”
That’s an inspiring thought. But it doesn’t excuse churches from resisting efforts to impose state domination on religion. In America, that battle has apparently begun.
A while back I posted an ASK FATHER Question Box query about the rising of used altar linens by a priest before the linens are sent to be laundered. It is a good question, because it touches on our sense of the sacred.
A canonist friend sent the following pertinent information:
I had some time to look into the issue of washing altar linens.
Among the information I found out is that, lay brothers of the Order of Friars Minor who were entrusted with the charge of the sacristy, by papal privilege, could handle the sacred vessels and perform the first washing of the corporals and purificators. In addition, the privilege of doing these first washings were usually granted to brothers and sisters of religious institutes that follow the Rule of St. Francis who serve as sacristans in their chapels.
Then, with the momentous motu proprio, Pastorale munus, Paul VI, in 1963, granted a whole bunch of faculties to diocesan bishops. One of those faculties (#28) was,
“Permittendi clericis minoribus, religiosis laicis, necnon piis mulieribus ut pallas, corporalia et purificatoria prima quoque ablutione extergere possint.”
It seems that non-religious laymen and impious women are still prohibited from doing the first washing.
The drama builds.
More about the latest schizophrenic “white paper” from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. This new “white paper” – for I don’t want to dignify it with “document”, which might give it more weight that it deserves – offered some pretty good analysis of the status quaestionis and then went to the zoo on offering proposals.
When new documents or initiatives are issued from some dicastery of the Holy See there is usually a presser, during which the heads of the dicastery and experts involved with the genesis of the piece or event present what is going on to members of the press.
In the case of the “white paper” – which does not form part of the Ordinary Magisterium – the presenters were Card. Turkson and Archbp. Toso. Also present was Prof. Leonardo Becchetti, whom I assume was involved in part in the genesis of the “white paper”.
At this point I direct your attention to the comments made by Jeffrey Tucker, which I have posted here. Tucker made the observation, and I think he is right, that different hands contributed to this “white paper”. He wrote: “Probably this document had many authors, one of whom gets the Austrian theory of the business cycle. He prevailed in the first section. Another author seems to know nothing about politics and power or the history of the problems of centralized states and central banking. He prevailed in the second section.” I am guessing that Prof. Becchetti is the one who prevailed in the second section.
I have some Italian friends who are very well-informed about the topics addressed in the “white paper”. One of them, a sometime contributor here and a mainstay of the Catholic Online Form, the great Fabrizio, offered some observations on Prof. Becchetti.
This is what Fabrizio had to say, and he is generally spot on in my experience:
I’ll quote what I said on COL. Trust me this is another “Fisichella” scandal.
Even though it’s not about abortion: it’s not as if liberty and private property are not rather important inalienable rights of man.
“A socialist economist, a left-wing “Catholic” who’s extremely active with the Democrat Party (formerly known as Partito Comunista Italiano, here’s is profile on the website of the party and other socialist organizations. He even has a blog on the website of the ultra-secularist paper “La Repubblica” which leads the charge against the Catholic Church every time the occasion presents itself. I guarantee you that loyal Catholics – and competent economists – don’t get to spread the truth through blogs on La Repubblica’s website.
Among other things this guy formed a lobby to request the EU to levy crazy taxes on financial transactions which will destroy whatever is left of available capitals, especially for small businesses and small investors, with a trickle-down effect that will further damage an economy brought to collapse by socialist greed for power, money and control.
So basically a Vatican dicastery helped a socialist ideologue to advance his agenda with the imprimatur of the Holy See (obviously he is the ghost writer of the part on financial transactions).
The writings of this guy are quoted by all Marxist organs and groups. Here is an example taken by a blog of a local group of the Italian “Democratic Left for European Socialism”. I guarantee you these people HATE the Church and of course liberty and property. They are part of a left-wing coalition led by “Niki” Vendola, a militant homosexualist of the former Communist Party.”
Curiouser and curiouser. There would have had to have been some pretty good cover provided for this “white paper” from the Secretariat of State. Otherwise, with this pedigree, it probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day.
In any event, I think we have a better idea now why the left-wingers and catholics have gotten so excited about this “white paper”. They are able very easily to tune into that frequency.
During November Holy Church promotes prayers for the souls in purgatory. The souls in Purgatory are members of the Church just like we are but of the Church “Suffering”. We are members of the Church “Militant”, and we are like soldiers on the march through the world on the way with our Great Captain towards our heavenly home to join the members of the Church “Triumphant”. We can help the souls in Purgatory through our good works as assigned by the Church, who has the authority from Christ to apply to them the merits of His Passion and death, and the merits of the saints.
Here is how you can obtaining a Plenary Indulgence on 2 November 2, All Souls:
To obtain a Plenary Indulgence from 1-8 November
Several indulgences may be gained on the basis of a single confession but only one may be gained after a single good reception Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions.
If you are not correctly disposed or if you don’t fulfill the prescribed works and/or the three conditions the indulgence will be partial and not plenary.
Anyway, have a plan for gaining your indulgences for the poor souls.
From a reader:
So something strange happened to me this past weekend. I went to confession and brought along my daughter (11) confessions are heard in my parish from 3:30 to 4:30 on Saturday afternoons I must confess, no pun intended, I did not follow one of your rules and arrive slightly after 4:00. The room was packed (praise God) but upon 5:00 when Mass was to be said the priest (not the normal parish priest) apologized, and excused himself to say Mass. My daughter and I were not the only ones still waiting, there were four of us total. Just to bad for us I guess? Hope we don’t die in the next week? I was courteous and just left but had a hard time trying to explain this to my daughter, the best I could do was…next week we go early!! Any thoughts, is this normative?
Normative? As in “is this normal”? Yes, normal priests cannot normally be in two places at the same time.
Mass was scheduled for 5 pm. Confessions were scheduled until 4:30. However, the priest heard confessions for about a half hour longer than confessions were scheduled, seemingly up to the very last minute, since he was scheduled to say Mass at 5 pm. Right?
I think your conclusion that “next week we go early” was just about right.
In my 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession I put in the number 3 spot: “…come at the time confessions are scheduled, not a few minutes before they are to end”. Your experience is why I added that tip.
I am sorry that you were not able to make your confession in that moment. At the same time, it seems as if the priest there was very diligent and was doing his best.
My friend Fr. John Trigilio, who head the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, has a not on his blog The Black Biretta about priests and happiness.
Here are a few paragraphs from his longer post, which I encourage you to take a look at.
We jump in media res and I added some emphases …
[…]
Professional jealousy and clerical sycophants are what discourage priests. When their bishops do not treat them as sons of the church but as lower level managers whose task is to be a company man at all times, then you get some unhappy priests on your hands. When the same guys have been on Personnel Board for the past 20 to 30 years; when assignments are made not based on qualifications but on church politics and ‘who you know rather than what you know;’ when special treatment is given to those who went to the bishop’s alma mater while those who had to fight tooth and nail to preserve their orthodoxy and virtue while in the seminary are made to feel like misfits after ordination; these make for disillusioned clergy to be sure.
Foibles of parish life are like family life. Any husband and father realizes that no family is perfect and that every day has its challenges. Likewise, every priest knows that no parish is perfect (and no pastor or parochial vicar is perfect either). There are good days and bad days. Many challenges and many opportunities for grace and conversion. What deflates priests, is not celibacy or Magisterium, but subterfuge, duplicity and deceit from their own ordained brethren. When church ceases to be about faith and more about solvency, then priestly zeal can drop dramatically. Yes, bills must be paid and responsible financial procedures and policies be in operation. On the other hand, bishops do not need ‘yes’ men, they need honest, courageous, and un-ambitious advisors to give them reliable and responsible counsel. Sometimes, you wonder if the old Soviet Union did not reincarnate or morph itself into a diocesan bureaucracy.
Priests are happy being priests and doing priestly things, like celebrating the Sacraments, teaching the faith, visiting the sick, and helping parents form their children into Christian men and women. What makes us unhappy is being treated like we’re guilty before we even know what the accusation is. What kills priestly zeal is corporate red tape and extreme micromanagement. I promised respect and obedience to my bishop and his successors but not to a committee or board advising him on numerous matters. That is not to say most priests who work in chanceries and central administration are not devout, sincere, hard working or competent men. Most are. But there are places where the tenure has been so long and the cronyism so pronounced that middle management makes itself indispensible and necessary. During the worst of the clergy sex scandals, it was not just the perverts who misbehaved and a few bishops who swept things under the carpet, it was also a few middle management clergy giving bad advice and a few becoming a buffer between priest and bishop. When that happens, good priests are unable to communicate important information to their chief shepherd because someone in between has blocked or intercepted the message. Access to the bishop for any priest has to be unfettered as any son would be to his dad. When the corporate model is enshrined, however, it feels like only the vice presidents and board members have access and lower level employees just do their work and keep quiet.
I have been ordained 23½ years and can truthfully say I would not be happy doing or being anything else in the world. I love being a priest and love doing priestly things. What disheartens me and my colleagues is not the human element but the dark side of human nature which can tarnish any human heart, be it clergy or laity, priest, deacon or bishop.
When priests are told they need to get anger management treatment merely because they preached a homily in support of Humanae Vitae and in condemnation of birth control and abortion; when priests are admonished for enforcing canon law and requiring sponsors for baptism and confirmation to be Catholics in good standing; when priests are reprimanded for exercising their legitimate liturgical options as stated in universal law; when pastors spend sleepless nights over meeting diocesan assessments; when assignments and transfers are arbitrary and haphazard rather than based on experience, history and qualifications; then zeal begins to erode and evaporate.
On the other hand, when priests feel like they actually belong and work in a family of faith rather than in a corporate business, they are willing to endure any hardship, obstacle or inconvenience. When priests feel that their bishops see them as spiritual sons rather than ordained employees, they will love them in return and serve them to the best of their abilities. Most priests ARE happy but they can be even happier. Does not mean more pay or more vacation. Does not mean eliminating celibacy or the hierarchy. It means ditching the corporate model once and for all. Bishops are more than Vice Presidents and corporate executives. They are SHEPHERDS and priests and deacons are there to serve and assist them.
It helps when church authority is employed to discipline all instances of misbehavior (like teaching heterodoxy or committing liturgical abuse) and not just when it involves personally disagreeing with one’s superiors or their prudential judgments. Stepping one someone’s toes is not the same gravity as denying a revealed truth or committing sacrilege, yet often those crimes go unnoticed or unpunished while minor infractions of diocesan policy are punished with severity and swiftness.
The aftermath of the scandals has made some of the faithful suspicious but most still trust and love their priests. The excessive and over-the-top sacrosanct respect given to the clergy until the end of the 1950’s has gone and rightfully so. Sadly, some parishioners have become more bellicose, contentious and disrespectful especially when a priest is merely defending church doctrine or enforcing church discipline. Yet, even these burdens can be borne as long as the priest feels he is supported downtown as well. Priests expect to be called on the carpet if we are guilty of misbehaving in any way but we also presume to be backed up when we defend Holy Mother Church by those lukewarm Catholics who seek to make her irrelevant in matters of faith and morals.
[…]
When the human element of the Church is fair and just, that enables the rank and file to busy themselves with the pastoral work that has to be done. When there is cronyism, politics, skullduggery and intrigue among the clergy (upper and lower), then the zeal can be robbed from those who find it distasteful and inappropriate. Happiness is the natural object of the human person that is why we seek eternal happiness in the next life. Happiness is like joy. It comes from having inner peace which is tranquility of order. When our will conforms to the Divine Will, there is harmony and peace in our soul and that creates a sense of happiness. Knowing you are doing what the Lord wants you to do makes you happy. But human beings can also bring unhappiness when they distort the truth and when they deny justice to fellow human beings.
A former bishop told me that he loved to get letters of support for his priests since most people only write their bishop when they want to complain about a priest and rarely to compliment him. We have all had the experience of the nasty letter from the irate parishioner who feels mistreated. Whenever a positive letter came in, this bishop made the same effort to call the priest in and share the contents. If more parishioners wrote supportive letters before their pastor got transferred or before he leaves this earth, it might help keep more guys happy on the job.
When you doubt that your efforts have any effect, that there may be no fruit to your labor, it can be discouraging. Hence, I always tell people when I visit other parishes that they need to express their satisfaction from time to time, to their priest and to their bishop. No need to remind them to complain when he is not doing what he is supposed to do, people react immediately and rightfully so. Jesus often gave encouragement and so should all of us.
[…]
Father made some good points here.
Also, in the section I cut out, he talks about bishops and getting priests named “monsignors”.
My friend Jeffrey Tucker knows more than his Gregorian chant. Most of the readers here will know him from The Chant Cafe. Did you know that Tucker also knows a thing or two about economics and that he is on the staff of Acton University each year?
Jeff has a commentary on Crisis about the new “white paper” from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which I ranted about here.
The New Vatican Document on Finance: Right Diagnosis, Deadly Cure
Jeffrey TuckerLet’s say you go to the doctor with a pain in your gut, and the doctor very astutely discovers that you have been poisoned. He knows how and when it happened. He knows the precise kind of poison that victimized you. Then he gives your prescription: more poison in higher doses.
You would be at once grateful and alarmed.
This is roughly how I feel about the “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority,” a document [Can’t we all just start calling it a “white paper”?] just issued by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Reading from the top down gave me a real charge. Some people at the Vatican have gotten the message about the dangers of the fiat money system that generates unlimited amount of credit, and even traced it all to the monetary reforms of 40 years ago.
In recent decades, it was the banks that extended credit, which generated money, which in turn sought a further expansion of credit. In this way, the economic system was driven towards an inflationary spiral that inevitably encountered a limit in the risk that credit institutions could accept. They faced the ultimate danger of bankruptcy, with negative consequences for the entire economic and financial system.
Exactly. The dollar was once based in gold, which provides a physical limit to the expansion of credit. All bills had to be paid. The government was limited. The banking system was a real business, not a socialist enterprise that experienced unlimited bailouts. Credit went to the creditworthy. Those who issued fake money paid a price.
Under a gold standard, there can be no creation of money that is not redeemable in something real. This automatically provides a check on both banks and governments — and therefore producers and consumers as well. An over-expansion leads to gold outflows and a restriction on credit expansion at home, as inevitably as night follows day. Therefore you have to live within your means. The bills have to be paid by real stuff.
Then President Nixon decided one day that we weren’t sending our gold anywhere. With that move, he ended the basis of the monetary system that had ruled the governments and banking systems since the ancient world. Every problem we’ve had since — inflation, bubbles, credit addiction, bank racketeering – can be traced to this one act. (This is not to say that Bretton Woods was perfect; what we really need is a system of full, domestic convertibility on demand and in real coins.)
That the Vatican gets this, or seems to, is a very good sign.
What’s more, credit is as addictive as any drug:
After World War II, national economies made progress, albeit with enormous sacrifices for millions, indeed billions of people who, as producers and entrepreneurs on the one hand and as savers and consumers on the other, had put their confidence in a regular and progressive expansion of money supply and investment in line with opportunities for real growth of the economy.
Everyone is addicted to paper. Consumers love it. Producers live on it. Competition drives everyone to partake. The real world fades and the make-believe world of paper profits rules the day. This is a false hope. It is like a house built on sand.
[… I’ll cut some of this so you’ll also read over there and to keep this short. Believe me, it’s worth it. …]
It is on this basis that the document [“white paper” not part of the Magisterium] first begins its attack on “liberalist policies.” Now, hold on a minute here. There is nothing in old-fashioned liberalism (i.e., the free market) that endorses the “freedom” to issue paper forever and call it money. On the contrary, the free market is heavily regulated by a sound money regime. The only freedom banks have here is to operate as normal businesses. Those who expand without limit are going to die and those who maintain sound finance will thrive.[NB] Nonetheless, the document’s identification of loose credit with market liberty is the beginning of the end of the good sense here. From this point, we plunge straight away into a full endorsement of a world central bank, a world political authority, taxes on financial trading, and heavy regulations. The document doesn’t actually call for an end to the free market. On the contrary, it imagines that enlightened world planners will protect, guard, and even “create” what it calls “free and stable markets.” [Yahhhh… right.]
This is beyond naive. It seems to illustrate a near total absence of clear thinking. Centralization of money and credit caused this problem. Centralization of political authority caused this problem. Why would anyone imagine that more centralization is therefore the answer? This approach takes a terrible situation and makes it much worse. [This is rather along the lines of what I wrote: “National banks have, after all, done such a good job that we should now make the effort transnational!”]
Probably this document had many authors, one of whom gets the Austrian theory of the business cycle. He prevailed in the first section. Another author seems to know nothing about politics and power or the history of the problems of centralized states and central banking. He prevailed in the second section. [He is probably right.] Tragically, this document is music to the ears of the very institutions that are responsible for our current plight. The document might as well announce to the world: “Give the power and financial elites more power!”
What is the alternative? Sound money needs to be restored. Business and finance need to be subject to profit and loss. The bailouts must stop. The liquidations must be allowed to take place. Governments must be disciplined and controlled, and devolved to the smallest, local units. In other words, we need real free markets and subsidiarity. This is the only path to a responsibly regulated world. Otherwise, we are going to end up creating even more problems down the line.
The Vatican seems to be growing in intellectual sophistication over worldly affairs. Now it gets economic matters half right. Sadly, being half right on something this important can lead to permanent calamity. To return to the original metaphor, the patient should thank the doctor for discovering the illness, but flee the poisonous “cure.”
Excellent analysis.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
EAW on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “@Charivari Rob: How about calling it the Old Chestnut Award? It will probably only be slightly less feared than the…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “@Plourde – Baptism of Desire is associated with those who desire Baptism (i.e. have faith in Christ and His salvation…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 53: Persevere!: “Looking forward to seeing “The Parish” in person this October when we will be in Rome for the first time.…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Following up EAW’s comment about Bishop Robertus Gerardus Leonia Maria Mutsaerts, I found a Dutch Katholieke Nieuwsblad article online, dated…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “While past statements by the SSPX clearly rejected Feeneyism, it appears that rejection of that position may no longer be…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “I think I understand your thoughts better now, father. I have to say I remain stunned by the development of…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Legisperitus: there’s much in that. But probably fresher blood would be more effective, both as a gesture that it will…” on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Legispiritus mentioned Bishop Mutsaerts. I have some news about him that isn’t good. On Saturday last week, Bishop Mutsaerts was…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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