The Catholic Church isn’t hoarding wealth

It is not true that the Vatican is awash in cash and thus hypocritical for criticizing materialism, unbridled capitalism, and excessive wealth.

Note: When Catholic teaching refers to capitalism, it is NOT referring to the heavily regulated capitalism we have here in the United States.  Pope John Paul II defined “unbridled capitalism” as “a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality.” Centesimus Annus (full text linked below).

You could put a dollar value on my small, country parish’s church home, but what would that prove?  We built it ourselves, raised the money to pay off the mortgages, continue to contribute with money, time and labor to maintain it, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, we use it every day.   It is just one of more than 17,000 in the U.S. alone.   So yeah … if you added up all the dollar values for these properties, it would make a great big number with lots of zeroes.  But so what?  On paper, my house is worth a lot too …  BUT I LIVE IN IT.

The Vatican City State is “rich” if you put dollar values on the priceless art.  But you can’t sell the buildings, any more than you could sell the White House or the Coliseum.  And they do require upkeep.  Some years ago, the Church paid for a multi-million dollar restoration of the Michaelangelo masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  The Vatican itself occasionally has a lean year when its overall budget runs in the red, but most of the cost of upkeep for the buildings and art treasures is covered by entrance fees paid by the tourists who come to enjoy the history and beauty every year.

Catholicism teaches us to use what we have to sustain our families and seek the good of society with what is left.  The institutional Catholic Church “family” runs more charities and hospitals than any other entity on the planet and often contributes to nations that have suffered disasters.  While there have been isolated cases of financial abuse, they are not common and would appear quite paltry next to the shenanigans of the Clinton Foundation.  Also, the current pope lives in what amounts to a dorm room and recently raffled off a dozen or so items he’d been given, including a car.  The proceeds were given to charity.

Sources:

• http://www.spiritdaily.net/Vaticancash.htm
• http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/challenges-vision-poor-church-poor
• http://caritasetveritas.com/2013/03/the-myth-of-vatican-wealth-on-helping-the-poor/
• http://impracticalcatholic.blogspot.com/2013/03/ask-tony-why-doesnt-catholic-church.html#.VVN2QvB3D1k
• http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html

JUST MY OPINION

After giving it some thought I’ve come up with a theory on the dichotomy between the races. It goes back to the beginning. The Europeans who came here to settle were from countries with structured governments with laws designed to create a civilized and orderly society. After the dark ages came the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the advance of science, art, and literature. They came to this land to freely worship according to their own beliefs without governmental interference. As the country became populated commerce spread and capitalism prospered. That’s when the problems started.

Africans, brought here by force, sold by their fellow Africans to slave traders, became the manual labor to produce the revenue-generating goods like cotton and tobacco. They came from a primitive continent without schools or what we would consider civilized culture, living the way they had been doing for more than a millennia. When they were brought here the plantation owners would not allow them to become educated. They were bought and paid for and their masters expected them to do as they were told. The democrats are still doing it.

I’ve railed about it ad nauseam, but I truly believe there is an inherent savagery in most of them that can manifest itself at any time. This I believe has to do with genetics and the roots of the world they were plucked from centuries ago. It is the only rationalization I can come up with to explain why blacks aged 15-40 make up less than 3% of the population but commit more than 70% of the violent crime. Lyndon Johnson’s plan of systematic enslavement to the welfare state has doomed an entire class of people to being satisfied with living on whatever the government hands out, making more and more babies they don’t really want to perpetuate the cycle of poverty, too ignorant or lazy to better themselves by making the effort to finish their education and working to make something for themselves rather than whine about being victims of racism. I’ll probably catch hell from somebody about how wrong I am, but that’s just my opinion.

Pot, meet Kettle.

The Obama girls attend Sidwell Friends School, a tony, expensive and highly selective private school considered to be “the Harvard of Washington’s private schools.” Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren also attend the school, as did Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton and Vice President Al Gore’s son Albert Gore III.

Source:

• http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/12/obama-wealthy-ignore-poverty-by-sending-kids-to-private-schools/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidwell_Friends_School
• http://www.sidwell.edu/admissions/tuition-and-fees/index.aspx

Hillary paid HER female staff less

Hillary Clinton has made pay equity a talking point in her run for president. In the video below, Hillary supporters are informed that she paid her female senate staff 72 cents for every dollar she paid the men.

The Hillary Clinton Supporter Beauty Pageant [3:10]

Source:
http://www.ijreview.com/2015/05/318852-hillary-clinton-supporters-not-change-tune-faster-learn-much-paid-women/