The False God of Poverty

Capitalizing on the Pope’s emphasis on the poor, auxiliary Bishop Robert McElroy of San Francisco, in an October 21st article in America Magazine, suggested that poverty was an equivalent moral issue to abortion. He stated:

If the Catholic Church is truly to be a “church for the poor” in the United States, it must elevate the issue of poverty to the very top of its political agenda, establishing poverty alongside abortion as the pre-eminent moral issues the Catholic community pursues at this moment in our nation’s history.[2]

In addition, Bishop McElroy also implied that opposition to certain progressive government welfare programs and tax policies is a sin:

…choices by citizens or public officials that systematically, and therefore unjustly, decrease governmental financial support for the poor clearly reject core Catholic teachings on poverty and economic justice. Policy decisions that reduce development assistance to the poorest countries reject core Catholic teachings. Tax policies that increase rather than decrease inequalities reject core Catholic teachings.[3]

Along these same lines, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida lashed out at Pro-Life groups in August, equating the issue of abortion to the issue of “food aid” as well as immigration and the death penalty:

I am convinced that many so called Pro-Life groups are not really pro-life but merely anti-abortion. We heard nothing from the heavy hitters in the prolife movement in the last week when Florida last night executed a man on death row for 34 years having been diagnosed as a severe schizophrenic. Which personality did the state execute? Many priests grow weary of continual calls to action for legislative support for abortion and contraception related issues but nothing for immigration reform, food aid, and capital punishment.[4]

We also should remember that the Communists, especially in Latin American democracies, have historically exploited the problem of poverty. Fundamental Marxist tactics have always involved stirring up anger at the injustice of poverty and directing it towards the affluent ruling classes. The infiltrating Communists then foment a class-war with the intention of overthrowing the existing government, promising a worker’s paradise to those who assist in the effort. As we have seen, however, once the Communists seize power, they have no need of their former impoverished workers. They then live just as their former affluent rulers did, except with poverty further expanded instead of eradicated.

The Remnant Online