[A-List] Pope's book accuses rich nations of robbery hails Marx's analysis of modern man

[tony black]

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2050255,00.html
>
> Pope's book accuses rich nations of robbery
>
> · Benedict hails Marx's analysis of modern man
> · Publication planned for 80th birthday
>
> John Hooper in Rome
> Thursday April 5, 2007
>
> Guardian
>
> Pope Benedict appeared to reach out to the
> anti-globalisation movement yesterday, attacking rich
> nations for having "plundered and sacked" Africa and other
> poor regions of the world.
>
> An extract published from his first book since being elected
> pope highlighted the passionately anti-materialistic and
> anti-capitalist aspects of his thinking. Unexpectedly, the
> Pope also approvingly cited Karl Marx and his analysis of
> contemporary man as a victim of alienation.
>
> The Pope's 400-page book, entitled Jesus of Nazareth, is to
> be published on April 16, his 80th birthday. Yesterday the
> newspaper Corriere della Sera, which is owned by the book's
> publishers, Rizzoli, presented a lengthy extract. It
> includes Benedict's thoughts on the parable of the Good
> Samaritan, who went to the aid of a traveller shunned by
> other passers-by after he had been stripped and beaten by
> robbers. While many commentators accuse the rich nations of
> not acting like the Samaritan, the Pope goes a big step
> further and compares them to the thieves.
>
> "If we apply [the story] to the dimensions of globalised
> society we see how the peoples of Africa, who have been
> plundered and sacked, see us from close-up," he wrote. "Our
> style of life [and] the history in which we are involved has
> stripped them and continues to strip them."
>
> The Pope wrote that the damage was not just material. "We
> have wounded them spiritually too," he said. "Instead of
> giving them God - and thereby welcoming in from their
> traditions all that is precious and great - we have brought
> them the cynicism of a world without God in which only power
> and profit count."
>
> His judgment is bound to be seen as a condemnation of
> colonialism. But it could also be read as a confession of
> the failures of the Roman Catholic church's own missionary
> activity, which often followed in the wake of conquest and
> colonisation.
>
> Pope Benedict went on to say that the poor of the developing
> world were not the only people who could be regarded as
> victims in need of help from a Good Samaritan. He said
> narcotics, people-trafficking and sex tourism had "stripped
> and tormented" many, leaving them "empty even in [a world
> of] material abundance".
>
> Describing humanity's alienation, Marx had "provided a clear
> image of the man who has fallen victim to brigands". But the
> Pope said he had failed to get to the nub of the issue
> "because he only developed his thoughts in the material
> sphere".
>
> The emptiness of modern life is a theme to which Benedict
> has warmed. He told a congregation at a Palm Sunday service
> that "earnings, success and career must not be the ultimate
> scope of life". He used the same sermon to warn of damnation
> for those who took backhanders in business or politics,
> saying that only those with hands not "soiled with
> corruption" could expect to reach God.
>
> Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
>
>
>
> This email was sent as a service by Roland Sheppard . Read
> my book, The View From The Painter's Ladder.
>
>
>
> ****************************************************
> Access LABOR-L archives and manage your subscription
> at https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/labor-l.html
>
> - ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>
> - -- 
> *** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
> * Boycott bourgeois mass-media   *      Political Comix & Cartoons *
> *                                *   for enlightenment & enjoyment *
> ***** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations *****
> * http://www.crumbmuseum.com   R. Crumb Museum   ****    BuzzFlash *
> * http://www.buzzflash.com/bradenton/archives.html Editorial toons *
> * http://weltschmerz.ca                                Weltschmerz *
> * http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html          Get Your War On *
> * http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks                   The Boondocks *
> * http://www.mediachannel.org/reality           Living the Reality *
> * http://www.crumbmuseum.com/history1.html R.Crumb History of U.S. *
> *********************  DEATH TO NEOLIBERALISM  *********************
> GPG fingerprint = 2E7F 2D69 4B0B C8D5 07E3  09C3 5E8D C4B4 461B B771
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFGFIpNXo3EtEYbt3ERAn5iAKCDSwt70uHzSo4HpoVe5wi72YRsOACg8l1/
> 5dAye2SBepl0snhyz5uRBuc=
> =YdBP
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>