Australian Mennonite Clair Hochstetler, in a reflection for the news service Mennolink, comments appreciatively on Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, as cited in an article from the Jesuit website Eureka Street.
Hochstetler writes,
“The Christmas story is a whisper from the edges that another kind of world is possible….
There are those for whom this message is unwelcome, those for whom it will be scorned as being naive at best and dangerous at worst, those for whom it will be regarded with warmth and those for whom it is an urgent enkindling of hope in the face of degradation and despair.”
(These excepts are the last two paragraphs of excellent commentary at the Australian Jesuit site named Eureka Street.)
The writer was reflecting on recent developments including the apostolic exhortation of Francis, the “Bishop of Rome” in Evangelii Gaudium — which didn’t just “whisper from the edge” but got thunderously close to the bone:
“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion.”
Pope Francis also took on the injustice and false pretenses involved in the so-called trickle-down economic theories:
“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”
Though not a Catholic, it is heartening to me to hear such straightforward talk from that pulpit.
Hochstetler’s article is available on the Mennolink website (registration required).