Gospel of Joy Part Eight

Pope Benedict in 2006 put small business in a list with hospitals and universities as centers of charitable activity.  That seemed odd until one considers the facts.

Francis comes out with a riff on that theme, paragraph 203:

Business is a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life; this will enable them truly to serve the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.

Exactly.  A theme I've been hitting all these years in business start-up is necessarily personal transformation, competing on design (increase in goods and services by division of labor) and wealth is defined as how wide the range of goods and services accessible to how wide a group of people at what they can afford themselves.  (Not how much money one person has.)

I have to wonder, as a Roman Catholic, if I believe this stuff because it was taught to me, and I am merely hearing it again.  I don't think so, since my views are generally rejected by Roman Catholics, although as far as I can tell, I try to comply with what Jesus taught. That is always controversial.

Also, am I not reading into this positively what I want it to to say, just as the right wingers are reading into to it what they think it says?  I don't think so because I am taking the words being used, not adding things not said.  So, to proceed.

Paragraph 204

We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality. I am far from proposing an irresponsible populism, but the economy can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded.

That will send the right wingers over the top, criticizing the invisible hand of capitalism.  Now, if you have actually read Adam Smith and the context of the invisible hand, it is neither pro nor con, a mere allusion to explain one idea in the catalog of ideas that Adam Smith wrote down.  As we see earlier, the Pope criticized long term welfare.  Here he goes again, challenging the whole welfare mentality.  Yet there is a taste of ludditism there: the only way you can increase profits by lowering the work force is automation, that is robots.  Robots are fine as long as it is the result of efficiencies that release all the more workers to pursue more specialized work.    Buggy whips become produced by machines so more workers can move on to making carburetors.

He has not left the decisions, programs, processes geared to better distribution etc to the state in this paragraph.  It is open to whomever.

But then he adds:

I ask God to give us more politicians capable of sincere and effective dialogue aimed at healing the deepest roots – and not simply the appearances – of the evils in our world! Politics, though often denigrated, remains a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good.[174] We need to be convinced that charity “is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones)”.[175] I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor! It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare. Why not turn to God and ask him to inspire their plans? I am firmly convinced that openness to the transcendent can bring about a new political and economic mindset which would help to break down the wall of separation between the economy and the common good of society.

Although the paragraphs are next to each other, he is not specifically linking them.  he is asking us all ot beg God for help in inspiring politicians to do the right thing.  I think the Pope recognizes it will take an act of God to get politicians to ever do the right thing, and he proposes this as a wistful  "why not..?"

He goes on:

Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find local solutions for enormous global problems which overwhelm local politics with difficulties to resolve.

Sure, let's all pray for politicians to do the right thing.  And in the meantime, we need to get to work, in spite of the chaos the state brings to the lives of everyone it touches, and work at the spontaneous order of anarchy we find coming out of the chaos.

He doesn't name names, but check this out:

How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralysing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive are those cities which, even in their architectural design, are full of spaces which connect, relate and favour the recognition of others!

You mean Hong Kong?

And then...

All around us we begin to see nurses with soul, teachers with soul, politicians with soul, people who have chosen deep down to be with others and for others.

This must be another example of staying positive.  I've met plenty of politicians.  I am yet to meet one who is not a criminal, certainly in action.  I would be too if I were one, it is not possible to wield that much power and not be criminal.  They are victims of the power given to them, but I do not pity them. I also have not met one I like, so it might just be me, but I doubt it.  I too meet plenty of people with soul, and wonder how we can be so abusive yet have so many good people around.  Just misallocation, I guess.

But he goes on:

But once we separate our work from our private lives, everything turns grey and we will always be seeking recognition or asserting our needs. We stop being a people.

Exactly, our work is our lifestyle, when customer-employed.

Paragraph 280, refers to an invisible hand positively

It is true that this trust in the unseen can cause us to feel disoriented: it is like being plunged into the deep and not knowing what we will find. I myself have frequently experienced this. Yet there is no greater freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, renouncing the attempt to plan and control everything to the last detail, and instead letting him enlighten, guide and direct us, leading us wherever he wills. The Holy Spirit knows well what is needed in every time and place. This is what it means to be mysteriously fruitful!

This is an example of the tone of the whole letter.  It is an exhortation to religion, mostly in evangelization, but extended into, among other places, the market.  I do think it is fundamental, but hardly controversial.  What controversy has been ginned up is by those who attribute to this document things it does not say.

Finito.

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