"In his letter to the pope, Kennedy acknowledged his own imperfections,cited the importance of faith in his life, listed the ways in which hispublic policy views comported with the social teachings of the church,offered his prayers for the pope and the Catholic Church, and asked forprayers from the pope."

"...listed the ways in which hispublic policy views comported with the social teachings of the church..."

“Confronted with the abuse of economic power,with the cruelty of capitalism that degrades man into merchandise, we have begun to see more clearly the dangers of wealth and we understand in a new way what Jesus intended in warning us about wealth.”

In another chapter on the key Biblical parable, the Good Samaritan, Benedict decries how the wealthy have “plundered” Africa and the Third World both materially and spiritually through colonialism.

It isn't easy for an old altar boy to say, but you're alarmingly mistaken about capitalism, Holy Father. Socialism, and not capitalism, is responsible for "degrading men" to mere chattel. Obviously this is an enormous subject complimented by a full body of literature on the library shelves. For now, I'll limit my comments to two general points:

1.   Economic socialism bastardizes Christ's "Golden Rule." When Jesus told his disciples to love their neighbors as they did themselves, He was, in my opinion, giving us a personal commandment. Although the New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the importance of community, no where does Jesus imply that temporal, earthly governments are in any way primarily responsible for providing social welfare. To the contrary, His famous "render unto Caesar" quote and similar verses reinforce the theory that the call to serve humanity is meant to be an individual charge. Show me the passage where He commanded an entire nation to feed the poor, a king to clothe the naked or a village to care for the sick. You'll be looking for awhile because it just isn't in the text. Jesus told you -- and me -- to do it personally.

That's partly why I get so angry when liberals suggest big government is somehow inherently "Christian." Not at all. In fact, attempts to impute one's Christian duty to a government agency is as clear an abdication of the duty to love as one can possibly commit. It's no mistake that conservatives give much more liberally to charities than liberals themselves.

2. Jesus came to set men free. Liberalism binds men in chains. God didn't make everyone "equal" in the radical sense. When we emerge from the womb, some of us are simply stronger, smarter, or just plain luckier than others. A favorite John Stuart Mill observation was that God didn't pre-allocate resources equally to each of His human creations.

God isn't a redistributer, folks. His specialty is empowering individuals through the dispensation of His grace. He did gave every person a certain equality of spirit; we're all creatures of God created in His image and, therefore, we all possess intrinsic worth. After all, God thought enough of our worth to actually become one of us through the Incarnation. Hence, we're constructed to use the gifts He gave us, whatever they might be, to help each other and make the world a better place than we found it. It's an intensely personal mission imparted to us by a man who led an intensely solitary and selfless existence during his 33-years on earth. Jesus never set up a charity nor did he attempt to overthrow the government. His sacrifice was His own, and what we learned was how to take care of ourselves and each other after He was gone. His life was ultimately an affirmation of human worth and the achievement of

personal empowerment.

On the other hand, social welfare programs rob us of our humanity by making men and women dependent on government. It handicaps the entire Christian dynamic by dehumanizing charity. In a social welfare state, the individual is not as important as the state itself. That's because social democracies or communist states claim to work for "the common good." This phrase is dangerously vague and can be manipulated to mean anything BUT a just society where individuals are free to rise as far or fall as low as their industry and ability can take them. When low income families are relegated to handouts and taxpayers find themselves without the opportunity for advancement or self-actualization, more people will starve than if individuals had been permitted to freely pursue their God-given potential.

"The hero. The leader. The god." from a Moscow museum.