For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve poverty in the world.  The number of poor people in the world fell by half from 1990 to 2010 due mostly to capitalism and free trade.  Why then do Catholic Church leaders continue to criticize capitalism as an evil market tool that hurts the poor and disadvantaged?  Why are our Catholic bishops allowing "social justice" programs in our parishes as well as the progressive "Common Core" curricula in Catholic schools?  Why are Catholic bishops demanding amnesty for illegal aliens and, at the same time an increase in the minimum wage?  These last two issues alone would surely hurt working American citizens by increasing unemployment. Just when the world is beginning to wake up to the nightmare of socialist/communist agenda, our Catholic leaders mislead with disinformation that props it up.

Pope Francis has appealed for reconciliation in Venezuela saying:  "I sincerely hope that violence and hostility will cease as soon as possible, and that the whole Venezuelan people, beginning with political leaders and institutions, will endeavor to promote reconciliation."  Does the Pope believe the Venezuelan people should reconcile with murderers and criminals who have turned their country into a Marxist state?  Does he not understand that the Castro brothers control Venezuela and keep its people, just like the Cubans, in bondage in order to continue stealing their petroleum and money?  Someone in the Vatican needs to have a serious discussion with Pope Francis on economics, capitalism vs. socialism, and human rights. 

Pope Francis is not the only Catholic Church official making embarrassing comments.  Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, recently sent a letter to the Senate calling upon it to "advance policies that promote decent work and just wages.  Wenski and Snyder express their concern with the ongoing jobs crisis as well as the resulting inequality in our communities and country." They wish the Senate to "consider closely any legislation that begins to heal our broken economy by promoting decent work and ensuring fair and just compensation for all workers."  They should read Thomas Sowell's article “Minimum Wage Madness,” in which the economist expresses that "advocates of minimum wage laws often give themselves credit for being more 'compassionate' towards 'the poor.' But they seldom bother to check what are the actual consequences of such laws."  According to the Employment Policy Institute, it is estimated that at least 360,000, and as many as 1,084,000 jobs would be eliminated if the federal minimum wage were raised to $10.10.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan commented in an interview on NBC that if not for the HHS abortion/contraceptive mandate, the Catholic Church would be a supporter of ObamaCare.   Is the Cardinal aware of the fiasco of this law, of the illegal and corrupt ways that brought its passage, of the pain and anxiety is causing those who are losing their insurance and physician, of the lies that sold it, of the intentions of its architects, like the euthanasia enthusiast Ezekiel Emanuel?  How can a moral Christian leader support such atrocity that was created with the sole purpose of controlling our people?  Are Christians supposed to be submissive to the god of government? 

Recently on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Cardinal Dolan made a statement of moral equivalence while defending Pope Francis from Rush Limbaugh's Marxist labeling.  Cardinal Dolan said:  "The Church is always concerned about excesses on the left, which is collectivism, socialism, communism, and excesses on the right, which is unfettered, cut-throat capitalism, Dolan said. Somewhere in between is the via media, which will come to a fair, equitable, just, economic system."  In no way is capitalism, even as extreme cronyism, compare with the evil of communism, an ideology that caused the death of over 100 million people in the last century.

During an interview with the president, Chris Matthews told Obama "your remarks the other day on economic justice to me, as a Roman Catholic, was so resonant with what the Holy Father, Francis, has been saying."  Is this type of propaganda what we expect from our moral leaders?  Do our Catholic leaders wish to replace the moral authority of the Church with government demands for social justice?  Redistribution of wealth results in poverty for everyone, except those doing the redistribution.  This is the reason every country that has had a Marxist government has ended up in poverty for all its citizens except for the government elite.   Redistribution of wealth goes against two of the Ten Commandments:  Thou shall not steal and Thou shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

Pope John Paul II spoke against the materialism of Marxism, which sees poverty as the greatest evil.  For John Paul the greatest evil was the loss of the soul through coercion and hindrances in the way of people who wish to realize their calling from God.  What does freedom mean to Christians?  Jesus told his disciples:  "If you make My word your home you will be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32).  Free to be the person God chose each of us to be; spiritual freedom as opposed to just social, political, or economic freedom.  Should then not our Catholic leaders make freedom a priority when preaching from the pulpit?  We often hear them preach about social justice, charity towards the poor and prayers for peace, but do we ever hear sermons about spiritual and religious freedom? 

Having been raised Catholic and educated in Catholic institutions for most of my life, I find the current Catholic Church leaders promoting the complete opposite of what Dominican sisters had taught me about Catholicism, sinfulness, and charity.  From an early age I learned from the sisters about the perils and dangers of communism, way before Fidel Castro came into power in Cuba.  In the summer of 1961, their schools in Cuba were taken over by the communist government and the sisters had to flee their country and leave everything behind.  Did any of our Catholic leaders speak about how Cubans lost their religious freedom?  Even today, do any of these Catholic leaders speak against the atrocities committed by communist governments in Cuba and in North Korea?   Do they speak against the persecution of Christians in 37 Muslim countries?

One of the worst of recent Christian massacres took place in Sadad, an ancient Syrian Orthodox Christian town, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi terrorists. Among the atrocities, 45 Christians -- including women and children -- were killed, several of them tortured to death; Sadad’s churches were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well. In the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama:  "What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized."  Another ancient Christian region, Ma’loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was attacked by jihadis; its churches plundered and its inhabitants force into conversion to Islam or else death.

Pope Francis has wished us peace for the New Year and reconciliation in Venezuela.  How can peace come to the world while allowing evil to take over?  Christians should wish for all God fearing people to fight back against the global push for domination by elitist leftist tyrants who wish to enslave us and; against the nihilistic and immoral culture Christians are being pushed to accept.  There will be no peace as long as our freedoms are threatened, including religious freedom.