Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Two Catholic Views Toward Novak's Thoughts on Pope's New upcoming Encyclical

I psoted his piece yesterday at Michael Novak On the Pope Upcoming Social Encyclical .

Father Z has a largely supportive view at M. Novak on liberal trembling over upcoming encyclical . (The Comment Section here both pro and con is quite good)

An opposing more negative view by this contributor at VOX NOVA Responses to Caritas in Veritate (see also his comment section that I expect will have more added during the day)

A few thoughts here. I think part of the problem in what is going on is that conservatives are viewed in the extremes. They envision no governemnt regulation and no need to have any input in the market. This is not reality. WHile many conservatives think less is often better that does not mean they want all aspects of life to be done by the market.

In fact please note that Novak cites with approval in his piece one of the best things President Lincoln ever did. That is the land grant college system

By contrast, in enterprise societies such as the United States, it is possible to become rich—even very rich—by methods that focus on innovation rather than greed. The great universities of the Middle West and Far West, were founded expressly to give spur to new inventions in mining, agriculture, and other technical fields. Texas A & M, Iowa State, Wisconsin State, Oklahoma State, and scores of others have been the hothouses of ideas in agriculture, engineering and electronics, geology, mining and drilling—ideas rendered practical by the makers of many fortunes. They have mightily served the common good of Americans and the entire human race.

Capitalism in its purest form of course is not holy writ. It needs to be tweaked at times for the common good. I think many conservatives recognize this.

2 comments:

Leticia said...

I agree, however, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have become the leaders of the conservative movement, and for them, the unfettered captialism IS holy writ.
As a Catholic who strives to adhere to Church teaching, I found myself at odds with Hannity on the phone about immigration (at the time he actually admitted that immigration visas were granted based upon politics, not justice). I have also been skewered by fellow prolife Catholics.
We need to find a middle ground where the poor are helped financially and morally.
Mother Teresa had no problem doing this. Does anyone consider her a leftie?

James H said...

Leticia

I guess I would differ a tad on how much influence Rush and Hannity have. I think their limited reach was shown last year when they were demonizing Huckabee and McCain everyday and conservative voters went into the voting booth and pretty much ignored everything they said.

I agree with you on immigration. I was at odds with him on immigration a good bit. That issue shows sort of how out of touch they are our. Looking at the GOP exit polls in the primaries the views on immigration policy are a lot more diverse than Hannity or Rush let on.

One proble is as I have always sadi is that on the left and right the media spends too much time interviewing and showcasing unlelected pundits. I mean who cares. It seems I might see a few elected officals on Sunday morning but the for the most part it is pundits interviewing pundits.