Oliver Knox — Hosting a Pope: Obama Learns from Bush

When Pope Francis makes his first visit to Washington, this week, President Obama will do something he has rarely done in his six years in office: He’ll follow George W. Bush’s example.

Obama will take the unusual step of welcoming Francis in person at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, greeting the head of the Catholic Church as he disembarks from the chartered aircraft that brings him to the United States after the first leg of his North American tour, a stop in Cuba.

Other world leaders don’t get that kind of reception.

Don't think that the pope has clout?

RealClearPolitics
Hosting a Pope: Obama Learns from Bush
Oliver Knox

Reuters — Pope Calls For New Economic Model, More Ethical Markets

Pope Benedict on Friday called for a new economic model and ethical regulations for markets, saying the global financial crisis was proof that capitalism does not protect the weakest members of society....

In it the pope said economic models that seek maximum profit and consumption and encourage competition at all costs had failed to look after the basic needs of many and could sow social unrest.

"It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism," he said.

The pope said people, groups and institutions were needed to foster human creativity, to draw lessons from the crisis and to create a new economic model.

The Huffington Post
Pope Calls For New Economic Model, More Ethical Markets
Philip Pullella | Reuters

Pope pushes wealth redistribution

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Noting a "rising sense of frustration" at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires "adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth."

The pope's words appeared in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, released on Friday (Dec. 16) at the Vatican.The message laments that "some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity."

Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with "respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one's own."Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the "promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution," Benedict writes.

The pope also calls on political leaders to "ensure that no one is ever denied access to education."

The message was presented on Friday by officials of the Vatican's Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The same body published a controversial document in October blaming the world's economic and financial crisis on an "economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls," and calling for global regulation of the financial industry and the international money supply.

Read it at The Huffington Post
Pope Benedict Peace Message Calls For Wealth Redistribution

By Francis X. Rocca - Religion News Service

I wonder what Joe the Plumber will have to say about this. No mystery what the Randites will think of it.