>http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/pope-a06.shtml
>
>Notwithstanding his right-wing views, John Paul
>II was always deeply conscious that the Church
>can fulfil its function as a prop of the
>established order only if it postures as a
>protector of the oppressed. He wrote numerous
>texts on Catholic social doctrine in which he
>denounced capitalist excesses and social evils.
>On a journey to Cuba, he sharply criticised
>neo-liberalism and its effects.
>
>This criticism was in no way directed against
>the capitalist order itself. Since socialism
>first emerged in the late nineteenth century as
>a significant force in the working class, the
>Catholic Church has attempted to counter its
>influence by articulating a social doctrine
>that, while condemning socialist revolution,
>makes limited criticisms of capitalism and
>speaks sympathetically about the plight of
>workers and poor people. John Paul II worked
>very much within that tradition. Thus, he
>rejected socialism in principle as an atheist
>doctrine in the Encyclical “Centesimus Annus.”
>
>The clear position taken by the pope against the
>first and second Iraq wars must be seen in this
>connection. With its
>one-and-a-half-thousand-year-old tradition, the
>Catholic hierarchy thinks in longer time spans
>than bourgeois politicians fixated on the short
>term. The Vatican is aware that the ruthless
>conduct of the US in the Middle East threatens
>in the long-run to destabilise the entire
>capitalist world order—including the Catholic
>Church.
>
>and now for some apologia:-
>
>http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/04/1336240
>
>AMY GOODMAN: And capitalism?
Amy G asks the hard questions, doesn't she?
Sometimes those folks at the WSWS really hit the nail on the head. I love their stuff on the pope. The outpouring of grief for that reactionary old bastard is repulsive.
Doug