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In U.S., Pope calls for action on climate change
Pope Francis is making his first U.S. visit this week. He has chatted with President Obama and addressed the Senate and House. It will be a good crowd for the pope - he loves audiences who have never really heard his material.
In the pope's orthodoxy, sloth, anger, gluttony, greed, envy, pride and lust are the Seven Deadly Sins. In Washington, they're the days of the week.
Francis' time with Obama will be interesting, given the holier-than-thou attitude and unbending dogma he is known for. But the pope will just have to look past that.
Obama's presidency and the nation are more secular than ever. Today, when people say, "Is the pope Catholic?," it's because they really don't know.
The two men have contempt for capitalism, which I hope the pope tempers while here. He will learn that our prosperity and generosity stem from freedom and capitalism.
The pope's leftist ideologies have resulted in a recent decline in his U.S. favorability ratings, from 76 percent to 59 percent. If this trend continues, we could be looking at a one-life-term pope.
His economic address sounded like Obama's speechwriters had penned it. The pontiff demanded more government control and regulation over the economy, citing the gap between the rich and the poor. He told world leaders to stop the "the tyranny of money." I'm not sure I'd cast the first stone on excess and money from the opulent Vatican - funded by the least-transparent financial institution in the world, the Vatican Bank.
The pope called money "the devil's dung," which was also the name of the Argentine bar where he once worked as a bouncer. I like that the pope was a bouncer. It explains his new policy: On Wednesday nights, women get into heaven free.
Just because the pope is "infallible," it does not mean he can't get some things wrong. Oh, wait. But on economics and the sources of poverty, he did.
No other system yet devised has lifted so many out of poverty and alleviated human misery worldwide as has capitalism. The pope's socialist homeland, Argentina, has abject poverty and slums. Even the poorest Americans live better than average Argentines. Average income in the U.S., based on effort and ability, is $52,000. In Argentina, home of "fairly distributed" socialism, the average income is about $18,000 - and it goes disproportionally to a politically connected few.
Leftists make the mistake of conflating poverty with inequality. If opportunity is equal, outcomes, by definition, will be unequal. All any authority should seek is that everyone has a fair chance at success. There is no way to have equal outcomes, ever, unless it is equal misery.
Popes give their lives to the Lord. Economics is not in their skill set, so I understand his thinking. Popes are like the lead in James Bond movies: They always get replaced by another white guy. The childless pope also believes that we should have more kids. Maybe he should raise my kids for a few weeks and then get back to me.
Obama is all about his "legacy." Oddsmakers have made Obama (for the Iran nuclear deal) and Pope Francis odds-on favorites to win the next Nobel Peace Prize. By the way, if you are betting on the Nobel Peace Prize winner, you most likely have a gambling problem. My view is that the pope is Time's Person of the Year; Obama should be "Persian of the Year."
No doubt the pope is a great man. To avoid appearing materialistic, he lives in a small apartment in the Vatican and drives a Ford Focus. No man who drives a Focus can ever have his vow of celibacy questioned.
No one believes our economic system creates heaven on Earth or that it's perfect. It's simply the best one God has created. Let's not stifle it with politically expedient rhetoric. Hopefully, the pope will better understand capitalism when he compares today's Cuba with the U.S.
We love the pope but hope he avoids political ideology. Remember, the Gospels are Matthew, Luke, John and Mark - not Marx.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com.