Link: Pope Says Church Role In Politics “For Good Of All”

“The Christian community cannot and does not want ever to substitute the legitimate and right competencies of institutions,” the Pope told pilgrims at the start of a two-day visit to one of Italy’s most economically depressed areas.

He spoke at an open-air mass on a cliff 100 meters (330 feet) above the Mediterranean Sea at one of the southernmost points of the Italian mainland.

A day after strolling through the Vatican Gardens with U.S. President George W. Bush, with whom he sees eye-to-eye on many moral issues, the Pope said the Church had the role of “supporting (governments) in their work and always proposes cooperating with them for the good of all.”

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Benedict, wearing gold and cream vestments as he celebrated the mass, said the Church’s role in influencing policy-making was especially important in societies where individualism, rather than the common good, is championed.

“Good wins out,” he said in his homily.

The common good is what government is supposed to be about, but “all” seems to be a secondary or even tertiary concern for many of our elected officials. They seem to see the world through “trickle down” lenses, and fail to see that many of the policies they support are expressly designed to produce maximum trickle upwards into the class which can afford to donate to political campaigns through a wide variety of means.

I stumbled across a parable written by Bolton Hall which speaks to this:

http://libertarian-labyrinth.org/archive/The_Division_Of_Labour

The Division Of Labour

IN the old times a man made his plans, did his work, received his product, said it was his right, and thanked his God that there was enough for all, so no one need starve. Now, an employer makes the plans, a labourer does the work, a monopolist receives the product, a professor says it is all right, and a clergyman thanks his God there is too much for some, so no one need care.

Do we have any clergy today who can see what The Rev. James Otis Sargent Huntington, founder of the Order of the Holy Cross, saw? While the Church must not stand above secular government, it must speak out when political institutions are maintaining structures that fail to live up to our highest aspirations, embodied in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – for all.