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The Holy Father on Trickle-Down Economics!

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Brian is the one in the middle, Msgr. Cahalane is to the left, and Msgr. O’Keefe is on the right

 

by Brian Flagg,

Yesterday I had the privilege of being on hate radio, KNST, the early morning show hosted by Garret.

Later on in the day they give you Rush Limbaugh.

I really mean this because it was an opportunity to speak not to the choir!

Like you would expect, I was talking about federal regulation that grew out of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that protect low income and minority bus riders from being discriminated against when local jurisdictions raise bus fares or cut routes.

And about massive income inequality and the rights of workers to organize so they can collectively bargain, etc. etc.

He told me to stop all the “hippie talk.”

I insisted that, on the contrary, it was New Testament talk, it was Jesus talk, it was the social teachings of our Roman Catholic Church and the words of the Popes.

So this inspiring passage, paragraph #54 in The Joy of the Gospel, The Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, is dedicated to Garret, with a sincere thanks for the invite to be on his show…

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish idea, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

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