Status quo…Render unto Caesar…status quo
The Holy Father, Pope John Paul the Second, was in Mexico City recently. He may, in fact, still be there. I really don’t know. News reports have him headed for the United States of America. So he might be in the states right now.
In any case, the Holy Father was in Latin America recently, warning against the excesses of free market capitalism and “the culture of death” and destruction. Which is, to be sure, an extremely curious thing, considering how Latin America is, as yet, not a fully capitalistic political entity.
True enough, Latin America is turning in the direction of the North American Free Trade Agreement and free trade in general. As is the rest of the world, which shouldn’t be surprising, given its proven track record of bringing about prosperity and a much higher standard of living.
But Mexico is still not a free market country. It is, indeed, still rife with the heavy hand of state control, stifling regulations, and, presumably, (after all, it is not so hard to imagine) massive government corruption.
The Heritage foundation, for example, does not rank Mexico high in the order of free market nations. You will recall, of course, that my colleague Ed Stephens Jr. wrote a column or two about this very subject.
Hong Kong and Singapore, in case you have forgotten, were ranked the top two free market nations in the entire world. Mexico was nowhere in the top ten. In fact, I am sure it was far behind, way down the list. Yet the Pope chides Mexico–and the rest of Latin America–for its commitment to the market economy (which, in reality, is a very shaky commitment at best).
So if the Holy Father really wants to condemn the excesses of capitalism, I suggest he schedule a tour of Hong Kong, where it is actually practiced substantially, where it exists–and where, by and large, it works.
Let the Holy Father go to Singapore and condemn capitalism and free trade there. Let him try to win Catholic converts among the rich, hardworking and able Confucian Chinese population there. Let him tell them that capitalism is bad, that free trade has failed their nation, as it did Mexico.
Or let the Pope travel to Switzerland and discredit free market capitalism and free trade there, where it has made many of its citizens among the wealthiest in Europe. Tell them about their capitalistic, dog-eat-dog culture of death and destruction.
The Pope should also travel to the European Union countries and warn against the perils of the Euro, about the dangers of globalized free trade there.
The Pope should condemn capitalism where and wherever it substantially exists. He should condemn it in America. He should tell the average American household, which has seen its stock portfolio double over the last few years, that capitalism and advanced technologies have forfeited their souls–their very salvation.
Who knows? They might just laugh and quote scripture: “Render unto Caesar what is his . . . ”
I think the Catholic Church is scared of capitalism–scared that it works, and scared that it might inevitably lead to a kind of secular humanism, in which man no longer feels a desperate, Dark Age need for God, since he has conquered nature by himself, with his mind.
But confident Catholics with strong faiths should never be afraid. After all, God is supposed to be with them.
