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In the last year the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has added to the dialog, and to the polarization of the world.\u00a0 It has become another contentious dialog between those who wish to see change vs. those who believe nothing should ever change; that the Bible is a tool of God vs. the indisputable word of God. \u00a0It is the people who believe the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church vs the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church, but spirituality and politics don’t mix. \u00a0It seems that talk about money\/politics and faith are separate conversations, not one ongoing conversation.<\/p>\n
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This Pope has had the temerity to suggest, among many things, that we should be kind to homosexuals, review policies that exclude divorced couples from the sacraments, that we shouldn\u2019t judge others, and, worst of all, has suggested that an equitable way of redistributing the worlds wealth should be sought!<\/p>\n
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We live in an age of ever increasing mechanization of labor, and still increasing population, and stagnant wages. \u00a0Labor is told to get a job, but jobs are dwindling, and the real buying power of wages has shrunk dramatically. \u00a0All the while the rich are getting disproportionately more wealthy.<\/p>\n
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The Pope sees this as against the teachings of Christ, around whom Christianity was born.<\/p>\n
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What is the response I have seen most often to this Pope\u2019s stand on our world capitalist (Trickle down) economy model?\u00a0 The Pope is a Socialist!\u00a0 The Pope is a Communist!\u00a0 The Pope doesn\u2019t \u201cget it\u201d, when it comes to Capitalism, because he took a vow of poverty and because he lived in a poor country!\u00a0 These are the cries I hear from people in the media…and from many people I speak to.<\/p>\n
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I, personally, think this means the Pope \u201cgets it\u201d more than any one of the media pundits, or anyone who lets others form their opinions for them.\u00a0 This Pope has seen first hand, and in grinding reality, what poverty really is, and how the \u201ctrickle down\u201d economic model is not working. He has demonstrated that happiness comes from within not without.\u00a0 He has seen the effects of entitlement and separation from one another…and Divinity.<\/p>\n
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There is a whole discussion one could have right now on exactly what “Socialism” is, but I will only say that there is no one definition, and that it is a fluid thing, with, at its core, parity for all, with each culture defining what is of “value”, and what defines an individuals “value”.<\/p>\n
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What \u201cSocialism\u201d isn\u2019t is an end to individualism, nor does it necessarily mean the government runs the whole thing.\u00a0 It is a fluid thing.\u00a0 What it means is that we can decide <\/i>what our unique version of \u201cSocialism\u201d looks like, and then declare what we value and deem \u201cproductive\u201d or having \u201cvalue\u201d…and isn\u2019t that the same thing as deciding how we wish to express Divinity in our lives?\u00a0 America can invent and refine and define what \u201cSocialism\u201d means in America, other countries can determine how it would work for them.<\/p>\n
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Socialism does mean a shift back to production for use, not strictly for capital gains.\u00a0 \u00a0 It means that we will have to re-examine just how influenced by the attitudes of buy, buy, buy and begin to know that there is enough for everyone…and understand who benefits, and who does not, if these attitudes change.\u00a0 It means that a thing or persons value is determined by its usefulness, not by its exchange value.\u00a0 It means that when enough of a thing has been produced, we may have to share and repair!<\/p>\n
Who, we must ask ourselves, is feeling the heat from the words of a Pope who also believes there is enough for all if we have the will to see life as being filled from within, and not from without?<\/p>\n
So many of the issues that this Pope has brought up, and which are getting so much reaction, are also those that effect the marginalized or some minority… women, the poor, gays and lesbians. \u00a0Why is it so upsetting to so many? \u00a0What would happen if these suppressed groups changed their minds about themselves…what power do they possess?<\/p>\n
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This Pope says to welcome the immigrant, which usually translates to \u201cthe poor\u201d, who will not, in economic terms, \u201ccontribute\u201d in the short term fiscal picture. \u00a0 I believe very person of any strata of society in any contributes to the \u201csystem\u201d, if not through income tax, then through sales taxes, labor, knowledge, spirituality, and even, simply, the belief in something better.\u00a0 None of these are small things, and most people\u00a0do not see, minus the immigrant, their country would not look like it does today.\u00a0 The idea that the immigrant population pollutes the pure genetic strain is ridiculous and completely denies that we are all One.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe for one moment that different skin colors were created by Divinity as a social ranking tool, but merely as a means to know who we are through contrast, in this human experience….and I believe this Pope sees exactly that.<\/p>\n
I ask…who and what is your God?\u00a0 Does your God represent all or just the privileged?\u00a0 Does your God ask you to fear change and your fellow man, or to know it is all God?\u00a0 Does this Pope create fear in you, or anticipation? \u00a0Should this Pope stick to strictly “spiritual” issues, or is, as CWG says politics our spirituality expressed?<\/p>\n
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at\u00a0<\/span>www.cwghelpingoutreach.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0She may be contacted at:\u00a0<\/span>Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the last year the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has added to the dialog, and to the polarization of the world.\u00a0 It has become another contentious dialog between those who wish to see change vs. those who believe nothing should ever change; that the Bible is a tool of God vs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1411,1],"tags":[62,1310,165,669,1183],"class_list":["post-8394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anyone_listening","category-uncategorized","tag-cwg","tag-pope-francis","tag-spirituality","tag-therese-wilson","tag-we-are-one"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8394"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8403,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8394\/revisions\/8403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}