By Mickey Friedman
December 8, 2013
I would have said my mother is rolling over in her grave except she has no grave to roll over in. I scattered her ashes where we had scattered my father’s ashes. But she’s probably amazed I’m writing about the Pope.
My mother had terrible luck when it came to nuns. No charming, orphan-loving Mother Theresas. Nope, my mom, sent to the nuns when her mother died young, was dealt the cruel, controlling, mean kind. They tried to beat the stutter out of her; and despised her independent spirit. As a boy, I could see her body tighten when she saw a nun.
I learned to despise bullies from my mother, who transcended the depths of poverty to become an extraordinary teacher of children. Smacked about by the nuns, then beaten by foster parents, she was never truly beaten. I learned from my mom to fight back.
So from the personal to the political. After years of the friendly form of capitalism, a healthy middle class, and a fairly reliable if minor sharing of wealth, we’re seeing a tightening of the screws, the cruelty of winner-take-all. A capitalism so brutal even the head of the Occupy Rome movement, the Pope himself, has weighed in.
Sadly, those of you who read the Eagle AP article have no idea that Pope Francis addressed the horrors of capitalism in his recent exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium.” But Pope Francis’ call for a renewed evangelism makes clear the Church must reach out to “not so much our friends and wealthy neighbors, but above all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked …” Why? Because “there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.” (Page 12)
Pope Francis continues: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” (Page 12)
If only my dear mother had found such a Church.
Francis tells us: “In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point … We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity.” (Page 13)
Many in the conservative movement profess a commitment to faith. I hope they open their hearts to Pope Francis’ message: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape …”
And to the one percent, Pope Francis says: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power … Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us …” (Page 13)
As I stood in front of Town Hall on Thanksgiving with my sign “A Fair America,” I couldn’t help but think my mother was glad the Pope had finally come out for the 99 percent. And I could hear her saying, “Now it’s time for Rome to recognize and respect women’s rights.”
________________________________________________________________________________
You can find the complete version of “Evangelii Gaudium” here:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html