December 26, 2013

Dear Sam,

Last month you asked whether I’d like to prepare a response to the letter or exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father, Francis.  I think I should. 

You gave a blanket invitation to the WRF membership.  I suspect most responders will have read the document through the lens of theology.  I am not able to do so - I confess to limited interest in theology, with no formal training in the discipline.  When asked about my faith or religious affiliation, my usual response is, “I am a Christian.”  I consider the Reformed branch, and the further Presbyterian branch to be different from other branches, but not a superior branch. There is an arrogance that goes along with the divisions that does the cause of Christianity no good.  On those occasions when we recite the Nicene Creed I get goose bumps when I get to the “...one, holy, catholic and apostolic church” part.  Regarding doctrine and our distinctives, we should be mindful of St. Paul’s observation,  “At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror.  The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God has known me!”  So, what follows is not scholarship, but rather ruminations from your brother.  

            I first read of the papal document upon its release a few days before Thanksgiving (the U.S. holiday) as reported in the Wall Street Journal.  The Journal’s focus is on finance and economics; I’ve earned my keep in the world of finance, and have a long standing interest in macro-economics - how income and wealth are created and distributed. Macro-economics is not a subject that makes its way to our church assemblies.  I recall that the Westminster Catechism in its description of what is required in the fifth commandment tells us that inferiors should live in deference to superiors, remaining cheerful inferiors, and in the seventh commandment it speaks against the building of fences, but we’ve had little fresh thinking on social justice issues since then.  I have appreciated the papal encyclicals, beginning with Rerum Novarum as the nineteenth century drew to a close, and the periodical updates, addressing the questions of which political and economic structures would best serve Christianity. These encyclicals have generally taken a cautious view of either markets or governments functioning without regulation because of the sinful bent of the participants. 

            Francis, especially in paragraphs 52. through 60. takes a dim view of what we might call a right-wing or libertarian understanding of economics and politics.  His legitimate concerns are consumerism (he who dies with the most toys wins), materialism, and with the consequential unequal distribution of income and property, which in turn contributes to the dehumanization and violence in our culture.  I believe his assessment is correct. 

            Today the securities market stock indices reached new highs, creating enormous wealth for those with significant income, while at the same time about fourteen out of every one hundred employable persons in the U.S. is unemployed.  We have a Federal Oversight Management Committee charged with the responsibility of keeping unemployment low and inflation low.  I often attend meetings of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, whose CEO is a member of the FOMC.  They do not want unemployment to fall below five percent because the resulting competition for workers leads to pressure on wages which leads to inflation.  The reduction in bond purchases by the FOMC which will begin next month is to ward off inflation - and make sure unemployment doesn’t fall too low.  Is a system that requires that the bottom five percent be unemployed just? 

            The capitalist system separates the managers of business from the owners.  Shareholders are looking for increased corporate earnings, and the managers remain in position as long as they deliver earnings growth.  One of our neighboring employers, Merck Pharmaceuticals, recently announced the layoff of another 8,500 employees to shore up their per-share corporate earnings.  I worked many years for a large New York financial firm and have seen this commoditization of persons occur repeatedly.  Incomes at the top depend on it.  

            In more recent years I have been a major shareholder in a non-publicly traded firm.  We have consciously employed as many people as we can, and can have parts of our enterprise operate with low earnings, but this is not a concern since we don’t care much about quarterly earnings growth.  But Wall Street is all about businesses where human resources, financial resources and natural resources are all commodities to be utilized for the greatest profit. 

            Our U.S. unemployment rates are low compared to most of the both developed and developing economies.  Francis’ concern is with the church in the whole world. 

            In Centesimus Anus, the encyclical of John Paul II on the one-hundreth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, he observed that the problem in world economics is not  the economic system, whether it be capitalism or socialism, but the moral fabric of the society in which the system operates.  I returned a few weeks ago from an educational conference in the Dominican Republic.  They have a democratically elected government and a free market economy. The place is in chaos.  A few weeks before we arrived the state replaced the police with the army - the police were too corrupt to function.  Elections are corrupt and bribery “permits” dictate business.  The UN ranks the business climate in the bottom five percent of world economies.  The solution is not more or less regulation but the prophetic teaching of the church and the renewal by the Holy Spirit. 

            Francis took a dim view of “trickle down” economics, a theory with many adherents in the U.S.  The theory is that high incomes and low taxes for the wealthy will benefit the poor, since the wealthy will use their riches to create enterprises that will create jobs, etc.  Francis said, “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”  The sacralizing of capitalism, the more unfettered the better, was pronounced during the last presidential election among my Reformed friends.  My Christian, right-wing friends, were all in a dither during the last presidential election about the reinstatement of the U.S. tax on estates, a tax they deemed confiscatory, killing incentives to work, with all sorts of dire results, referred to by them as the “death tax.”  

            I tried to show them that, when our Heavenly Father was writing the tax code, the redistribution of wealth was much more severe.  We have a bell in Philadelphia, referred to as the Liberty Bell.  The name has nothing to do with our rebellion against George III and our subsequent independence.  It is much older; it was hung in our statehouse (now called Independence Hall) to commemorate the fiftieth year of Philadelphia’s founding. Around the edge of the bell are these words from Leviticus 25, “You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.  It shall be a jubilee...”  Our Heavenly Father recognized that, while everyone started out with similar resources, over time some fields would be invaded by locusts, some afflicted by disability, some were simply not as sharp as others, but there was to be no poor in the land, and certainly no underclass.  To assure His loving concern, every fifty years everyone’s starting resources would be restored, all debts written off, etc. 

            Is wealth redistribution and parity of income or resources a model for today?  I played squash for years with a friend who sat in the Temple University Chair of Religion, within the Philosophy department, and taught ethics there (a strict utilitarian).  This made for many good discussions at the bar after matches.  Pat’s answer to God’s scheme of economic redistribution was that there was no evidence the jubilee was ever practiced.  My response was to refer him to Luke 4:18,19 where our Lord proclaimed that He had come “...to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  The kingdom of our Lord Christ is a jubilee kingdom.  Shouldn’t we then, as his followers, promote economic policies that remove unequal distributions of income and resources? 

            Francis’ concern with the growing material inequality in our culture is well placed.   He does not give any easy answers.  What he does do is speak on behalf of the poor. Our reformed churches too should share our Lord’s bias for the poor.  We should also, in our teaching be reminded that sacralizing any economic or political system is wrong.  We are citizens of another kingdom.  I suspect that consumerism is as much a part of our church culture as the surrounding culture.  We seem to buy the same stuff, pursue wealth and its badges, and differ from non-Christians only in our Sunday church attendance. There are churches, such as the Brethren / Mennonites (“cursed Anabaptists,” we call them in our reformed confession), or the Salvation Army, from whom we can learn much. 

            I’d like to touch on two other impressions from my reading; a call for self-examination by our churches, and the vitality and joy of living in Christ. 

            My impression of the reformed churches, and this impression is limited to those churches of which I have been or am a member, is that institutional self-examination is not going to happen.  Personal examination and the hoped for sanctification is encouraged.  During 2014, I should grow in grace and knowledge, becoming a different person.  But the church as institution has presumably arrived so we don’t rock the boat.  I’ve wondered if this is a consequence of being “reformed?”  There is a sense in which reformed means a return to what we were in the past.  This is probably the original meaning - the church around the fifteenth century looked at itself (at least some in the church did) and decided the church had wandered from its roots and needed to get rid of much institutional accretion, and again form itself like the apostolic church.  This was the intent of Calvin and others, reforming the church back to its original composition.  The second meaning of reformed refers to a church which has as its model the teaching and polity of the church in mid-seventeenth century England.  The notion of “semper reforma” has no place - we arrived with the Westminster C&C and Book of Church Order.  This is my church and it desperately needs someone like Francis to open the door and let in a little fresh air.  Failure to do so will, I fear, result in little appeal to unbelievers and no voice to our culture. 

            My prayer is that our church leadership will recognize that Christianity is not really all about reformed doctrine, or the institutional church, but about our Christ.  Maybe we should start celebrating Pentecost.  Our Catholic brothers are not really a confessional church; they ascribe to something called the magisterium - what C. K. Chesterton called the true democracy - the accumulated voice of the church throughout her history.  This requires a healthy reliance on the Holy Spirit, the promised Spirit who would lead the church in all truth.  Such an ecclesial approach opens the door to growth in grace and holiness.  As churches we really haven’t arrived - we’re on the way - and faithfulness to his word, and led by the Spirit, we should eagerly look for change (aka sanctification).  I recall reading a few years ago Soren Kierkegard’s Training in Christianity.  He observed that the Danish church of his day didn’t really know who Christ was, and that the worst enemy of Christianity was Christendom.  That also seems to be Jesus impression of the church of his day.  We must be open to repentance. 

            Francis speaks to some length about church assemblies, and particularly preaching.  This is something in which we reformed types should excel.  Correct dogma is, after all, the key to joining our churches, and our assemblies are largely devoted to preaching.  As a friend who has left his reformed church described it - “nothing more than a sermon surrounded by four walls.”  I appreciated Francis’ observation, “The homily...is a distinctive Genre, since it is preaching situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture.”  The first letter to Corinth gives us the most descriptive picture of an assembly of the early church.  John, in his first epistle writes, “I know that the touch of his Spirit never leaves you, and you don’t really need a human teacher. You know that his Spirit teaches you about all things.”  I believe we, as reformed churches, should examine our assemblies, to make them joyful celebrations. There should be much room for cultural diversity, a consideration of the beauty of the liturgy, wide participation of those assembled, much reading of God’s word, and the inclusion of the eucharist in most if not all of our assemblies.  

            Above all, I can give a loud AMEN to Francis’ call to awaken the church to her love for her king.  Our love of money, stuff, and power has separated us from the love of Christ.  As reformed churches we have neglected the poor and preferred building institutions.  We have sacralized economic and political systems, making them idols rather than servants.  We adhere to rules of church order designed to protect the power of their authors. 

 

Comments

"bias for the poor" Permalink Submitted by Milton Almeida on Sat, 2014-01-04 19:25

I know what tha author meant, but I disagree with these terms "bias for the poor". However, in the overall approach, although seldom agreeing with any pope, I do believe that he has a point here. I agree with the author's accessment of the pope's speech, but I have to point out that the Roman Catholic Church benefits from capitalism. I also think that Reformed folk have much to learn in terms of biblical charity, including, but not limited, to doing and practicing it in secrecy as per Mat 6.When Jesus had a "golden" opportunity to declare His unwaving support for the cause of the poor He said "the poor you shall always have with you"; and the Holy writer that recorded this fact informs us that the guy who mentioned the poor was a corrupt fella... The poor will always be with us and used for corruptive modes. I acknowkedge that I should have restricted my comments to the Brother Heerdt response to you, but indulge me for having taken the opportunity to comment about the Pope's statements as wellMilton AlmeidaThe Grace Ambassador 

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Comments on Pope Francis’ Permalink Submitted by SysAdmin on Mon, 2014-01-06 12:58

 

I have read the EVANGELII GAUDIUM and it raises more questions than supplying many answers a issue I trust to discuss. But the problem, I discern, lies at the root that begins with the mass, imposition of the pallium and bestowal of the fisherman’s ring for the beginning of the Petrine ministry of Cardinal Bergoglio now Pope Francis on Tuesday, March 19,2013 in Saint Peter’s Square.

In the inaugural homily of Pope Francis, he calls upon men and women ,” to protect” even “to protect Jesus with Mary.” I was unaware Jesus was not able to protect himself since He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings (1 Timothy 6:15). The homily is finalized with prayers to “ implore the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul , that the Holy Spirit may accompany my ministry, and I ask all of you to pray for me! Amen.” With all guess work out, I am writing from a Reformed perspective so when persons pray to the dead to aid in ministry, contrary to the express teaching of Holy Scripture as found in Deuteronomy 14:1; 18:11; Acts 4:12;and 1 Timothy 2:5 and not upon Christ, I start to pay close attention.

The EVANGELII GAUDIUM is an apostolic exhortatation. It is not a definition of Roman Catholic doctrine , it is not a papal encyclical but does offer to the Roman Catholic faith group a word of encouragement. However after reading Pope Francis’ exhortation I am left with more questions than answers to some of the challenges he posited. My focus is Chapter Two , “ Amid The Crisis of Communal Commitment” in particularly paragraphs 57-67 and 197- 216.

Pope Francis in this exhortation speaks of “economic mechanisms”, “ a special place for the poor” and for “God to give us more politicians capable of sincere and effective dialogue...”. He goes on to discuss the alienation of the poor and other segments of the global society. No doubt many things addressed do need the attention of all Christianity and not one segment of it. In fact, many issues and problems that are directed in this exhortation become the issues and  problems of all humanity.

Pope Francis expresses his concern for human rights then another problem arises. Why has he allowed the “Modifications To The Lateran Concordant”,though  it does remove mention of state religion , in the Supplementary Protocol to Article 1 but allowing the Italian Bishops Conference  in reference to  its priests under Article 2.1 and Article 4.4 of this concordat- that its priests have no obligation to report suspected child abuse to the police? This agreement between the Holy See and the Italian Lateran Concordat was signed on February 18, 1984, ratified by the Italian Parliament in March 25, 1985. Where is concern for the helpless? Nonetheless, the Chiesa Cattolica Italiana for May, 2012, in this official paper of Italian bishops (CEI) reported on sexual abuse. Here is what was reported , “ At the end of a morning of discussion and study on the inaugural speech of the Cardinal President, Tuesday, May 22 has been submitted to the General Assembly the ‘ Guidelines for cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics’ , approved by the Permanent Council of January, the text ‘translates’ the signs of the Congregation for the Faith. The priority remains the protection of minors and care to the victims of abuse, to care for it is accompanied by the formation of future priests.” No mention of the concordat with Italy and no urging for nullification!

Since the pope is a head of state, why has he allowed legal agreements or international treaties between the Vatican and other countries remain in force to the detriment of those citizens? These agreements called Concordats are legally binding on the various countries that subscribe to them. There are presently at least 26 countries the Vatican has a concordat with. What is the harm someone may inquire? Depends whether one is the Roman Church or the country!

It is well known Concordats have been in use for over 900 years. These accords deliver to the Vatican or more precisely the Roman Catholic Church great amounts of state subsidies. Concordats are used to ensure Roman Catholic canon law is required in not only the church but any church maintained institution even superseding other law. Lets take the example of Poland. Poland gives lands and money to the Roman Church which enrich, including    salaries paid  their priests in civil service, monks and nuns involved in education receive. Yet these schools provide no free lunches to the children , where it is documented, as of 2008, that a fourth of the children of Poland are in poverty.

Speaking of money and land, the Vatican owns more of Italy than they wish to report. These holdings are exempt from taxation by the state. I do not mean places or houses of worship or religious instruction but shipping ports, rental lodgings , hotels, sporting arenas -commercial investments. The Vatican has outdone Pope Clement VI in indulgences of 1343. The Vatican indirectly may offer penance for one’s sin by booking with the Vatican’s Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (Roman Pilgrimmage Office) and has its own airline for the believer to travel and obtain a papal audience. A sort of fly your sins away!

As the old saying goes follow the money! The Vatican bank or Institute for Religious Works (IOR) to keep the euro “... agreed in 2009 to submit to the anti-money-laundering laws of the European Union, but has done the minimum demanded of it. And now its own financial accountability body is shielding it from scrutiny.” This report from Concordat Watch goes on to state “ The Holy See’s financial statement  values St Peter’s Basilica at one euro. The Vatican Bank ... is ‘off the books’, i.e. not listed on the financial statement.” Even a United States court, in the judgement of the Ninth U.S. Court, cleared the way “... for suit against the Vatican Bank for Nazi gold.” Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal updated April 18, 2005. Of course the Vatican was not a defendant but only the Vatican Bank. This ruling was done by a three judge panel on behalf of the people in Croatia - Ukranian part  of Eastern Europe that were tormented and robbed by the Nazi puppet state. Why was this possible? Pope Pius XII had a concordat with Hitler. This enabled not only the silence of the Roman Churches against Semitic peoples troubles but also this caused the massacre of Serbs of the Orthodox faith causing even Pavelic in Croatia to become Roman Catholic. Did Pope Pius XII know of all the atrocities? He had to because he had boots on the ground with Msgr. Ramiro Marcone in Croatia and reports from Archbishop Alojzije Stepnac who in 1942 headed the Office of Religious Affairs.Even in Germany as of 2010 the Spiegel reported the Vatican was, after 200 years, still receiving payments, but also the Lutherans , under the “church tax.”

In a December 13, 2013 report Jonathan Levy in his “ Vatican continues to block audit of Holocaust looted assets: EU Says it Lacks Authority to Intervene “ (http// www.scribd.com/doc/191243344/VATICAN-CONTINUES-TO-BLOCK-AUDIT-OF-HOLOCAU...) proclaimed “ After World War Two, there was a pressing need to move assets from Soviet occupied lands as the Iron Curtain descended on Eastern Europe; changing these assets into Church property and depositing it at the Vatican Bank was an effective method however these assets often were commingled with property looted by the Nazis and Axis  regimes in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Croatia.”

All of this goes to the heart of the EVANGELII GAUDIUM. If pope Francis is to have credibilty as a politician, a head of state, and a religious leader would it not further his word of exhortation to nullify concordats that have questionable beginnings and puts an undue tax burden on the people in those countries.The poor are surely hit the hardest. After all, the statues of the apostles in silver and gold should be melted down and turned into coinage , given to the poor thus allowing the apostles to travel as they so freely loved , keeping them in circulation instead of resting on a niche getting dusty!  Nullify concordats that violate and infringe on the rights of innocent children enabling predators to practice their nefarious trade even when priests remain silent to law enforcement. Hold chaplains accountable for supporting Argentina’s junta, which from 1976 -1983, caused the deaths and mysterious disappearances of many of untold number. Many of the Mothers of the Plazo de Mayo never had answers for the children murdered in Argentina’s ‘Dirty War “ of 1976 to 1983. Why was Cardinal Pio Laghi not exposed as an active participator in war time atrocities when he was shielded from prosecution by pleading diplomatic immunity? After all he was the papal nuncio,along with Argentine bishops, that oversaw the appointments of Roman Catholic personnel in the police departments, prisons and military affairs that actuated and facillitated the persons responsible for murder and gross dehumanization.

Was not it Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a former chemical technician and nightclub bouncer, who later became a priest and after served in Argentina as a Provincial Superior in the Society of Jesus from 1973 to 1979? Even as  Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, he not have known of all these junta malevalent happenings? Was a voice raised against the military junta’s murder? Was the poor, disenfranchised , marginalized , and those on the bottom of the socio- economic ladder given any solace? Only police chaplain Christian Von Wernich was convicted for his activity in abductions, torture and murder in 2008. Pope Paul VI in Rome knew of the activity of terror so how did Cardinal Bergoglio , Jesuit head of Argentina , not know? But in order to further Roman Catholic social agendas , you remain silent! Even under accusations that you abandoned two Jesuits to the mercy of those, that of the military junta,who seized them, blindfolded them, drugged them and imprisoned for nearly five months for the crime of helping the poor you so urge the faithful to do in eleemosynary acts. Horacio Verbitsky in the Taringa Intelligence Collector did a 2010 article with the former Carinal Bergoglio, Pope Francis, in which the Pope stated, in reference to the Church, that it “ only gradually found out everything that was going on. At first nothing was known.” As the article continues ,it reads, “ Unfortunately for him, documents surfaced about a meeting of the Argentine bishops in June 1976, just six weeks after the military coup. There the bishops shared information about the climate of terror in their dioceses, including kidnapping, police torture and disappearances. The documents show that 19 bishops wanted to tell the world what was going on, but they were overruled by 38 others.” ( See Verbitsky’s report on, “Bergoglio, Dictadura e Inglesia”, Pagina 12,2010-04-11 at http//www.taringa.net and the documents).

I personally make no judgment on Pope Francis.I am only showing that what is said is not what the actions endorse. Should he believe in the redistribution of wealth , open up the Vatican Bank! The last thing the poor and hungry need are pious platitudes that reasonate only a hollow and empty meaning and stomachs.As Dr. Paul A. Tambrino has said, “ I believe our churches (obviously not all of them) have failed us because too many of our pulpits remain silent when they should be speaking out... babies are being murdered in the womb, and our pulpits are silent...sodomy is granted legal protection, and our pulpits are silent... millions of children are ‘medicated’ to control their behavior, and our pulpits are silent... the institution of marriage is crumbling, and our pulpits are silent...our elected officials lie, steal and commit adultery, and our pulpits are silent ... the entertainment industry celebrates debauchery, and our pulpits are silent

In summation, we all must reevaluate and undertake a self-examination or hear echoes of that prophetic denunciation heralded across time. “ Woe unto them who decree unrighteous decrees, and who write grievousness which they have prescribed, To turn aside the needy from justice, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will you do in the day of visitation...?” (KJV)

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