catholic missions

[nucatholic]

Amen! We need both the work and the word! I better not hear anyone in here dogging on Catholic Worker either. I know I know. I'm a liberal college hippie who preaches against capitalism without knowing a thing. I'd say, that about sums it up but I'm probably the most conservative anti-Capitalist at my University. I am definetly NOT a Marxist either.

[rich123456]

I was baptized catholic five years ago. When I was young I was very Liberal. Now I have embraced Capitalism. I have been self employed for 20 years. I have found many Liberal minded people in my Parish including our Father. I was once walking past him when I overheard him remark how stupid Bush is. The one thing I have found in the Church that matters to me the most is Christ. I can find peace in Him even when peace is meddled with around me. I love the people in my Parish and my priest very much. As a child I was told many evil things about the Catholic Church. There was hatred so to speak towards it. I find no difference in the mind set of those who tend to hate Capitalism / America. But then I have come to love so many Capitalist. I love the freedom of choice that it entails. I know its evils as well as it good. I have seen greed in the poor here in America as well as in the wealthy. I have seen such goodness in the rich as well as in the poor. I have seen envy in the poor and very rarely compassion for the wealthy in them. I have seen poor rich people and very rich poor people. I make no distinctions between the rich and the poor as we all need Christ the same in our lives. So that we can see each other clearly and fairly. . I see this mostly in the line of Confession. What I love the most about my country is the freedom to choose what it is that I want to do when it comes to the entrepreneurial spirit. If I have nothing, here I can gain everything. I have been down, I have at times been up. The best gain that I have ever yet found in America has been Christ and His Church. Everything else wanted has pretty much turned to sand. I am to much of a rebel for someone to tell me what I should do or not do with my hard earned money. I have a God given soul that can make those choices all on my own. I like that and would die for it. So that others can continue to have th same. This is where actions speak louder than words. We should not be concerned with what others have nor judge them in it. What Capitalism does is give each of us the choice, the freedom to do with this life what God has intended for it. We have choices, in that freedom. This is God given, this is our Country. We have the opportunity to distribute our own wealth whether in be material of spiritual as we see fit to do. Letting someone else do this for us here on earth without choice always leads down a very dangerous path. We can all give freely, who is stopping us?

God is Good, and our Great County for the most part is very good. Just as our Church for the mot part is very good.


Peace in Christ
Rich

[Contarini]

At the risk of diverting this thread, I'd like to observe (in response to rich's post) that capitalism can mean a lot of things. I don't want government centralization, but I do think the government can intervene to _protect_ the freedom of the "little guy" against large corporations, which as Chesterton pointed out are really just a less radical form of socialism. Surely it isn't beyond human ingenuity to devise a system in which the small entrepreneur is protected both from government interference _and_ from Wal-Mart? We're too all-or-nothing. We act as if Bill Gates swallowing up half a dozen companies is the same thing as some ordinary Joe starting up a corner store and making it work. At the point where "economic freedom" stops benefiting the common people and starts becoming an excuse for the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth in the hands of a few, it loses any value. But the answer to that is not government centralization, which simply concentrates even more wealth in the hands of even fewer.

Edwin