2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Well, clearly the Pope is no longer a factor [View all]pnwmom
(108,925 posts)was the best economic system.
So his principle was . . . what exactly?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/bernie-sanders-pope-francis-meeting/478740/
Let these seeming similarities lead us not into temptation: The alliance between Sanders and Pope Francis is profoundly odd. For one thing, Catholic teachings dont necessarily line up with Sanderss stump speech as much as he might like to think. The conference he attended at the Vatican was gathered to commemorate Centesimus annus, Pope John Paul IIs 1991 encyclical that focused on the evils of Marxism and communism. In that document, John Paul II argued that economies exist to serve human freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious. He criticized a kind of thinking that totally reduces man to the sphere of economics and the satisfaction of material needs. While Sanders has called for economic policies that focus more on poverty than profit-seeking and that incorporate goals like care for the environment, he is absolutely a material thinker. He apparently believes that every policy area, from foreign affairs to womens rights, can be explained by economic factors; politics, in his view, is neither ethical nor religious, but rather a function of wealth and class. His campaign-trail preaching seems to be in conflict with the very document he flew to Rome to celebratenot to mention central Church teachings on topics like contraception and abortion, which directly contradict Sanderss platform.