Pope slams Marxism, capitalism

SAO PAULO – Pope Benedict XVI condemned globalisation and Marxism as the causes of many of Latin America’s ills on the final day of his trip to Brazil, and lamented the wide gap between the region’s small elite and its poor masses.

Benedict urged the region’s bishops to mold a new generation of leaders to reverse Roman Catholicism’s declining influence in Latin America, but warned that priests should steer clear of politics. “The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit,” the pope told a bishops’ conference Sunday aimed at reenergising the church in Latin America, where Protestant churches have drawn away many of the faithful.But Benedict also lashed out at unbridled capitalism and globalisation.Before boarding a plane for Rome on Sunday to end the five-day visit, he warned the two could give “rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.”The pope did not name any countries in his criticism of capitalism and Marxism, but Latin America has become deeply divided in recent years amid a sharp tilt to the left – with the election of leftist leaders in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua and the re-election of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.Centre-left leaders govern in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.Marxism also still influences some grassroots Catholic activists in Latin America, remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict moved to crush when he was a cardinal.Liberation theology holds that the Christian faith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people from injustice.Touching on a sensitive historical episode, Benedict said Latin American Indians had been “silently longing” to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors took over their native lands centuries ago.”In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture,” he said.Many Indians, however, say the conquest of Latin America by Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese lead to misery, enslavement and death.Benedict, speaking in Spanish and Portuguese to the bishops in Brazil’s holiest shrine city, also warned that legalised contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten “the future of the peoples” and said the historic Catholic identity of the region is at risk.Nampa-AP”The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit,” the pope told a bishops’ conference Sunday aimed at reenergising the church in Latin America, where Protestant churches have drawn away many of the faithful.But Benedict also lashed out at unbridled capitalism and globalisation.Before boarding a plane for Rome on Sunday to end the five-day visit, he warned the two could give “rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.”The pope did not name any countries in his criticism of capitalism and Marxism, but Latin America has become deeply divided in recent years amid a sharp tilt to the left – with the election of leftist leaders in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua and the re-election of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.Centre-left leaders govern in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.Marxism also still influences some grassroots Catholic activists in Latin America, remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict moved to crush when he was a cardinal.Liberation theology holds that the Christian faith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people from injustice.Touching on a sensitive historical episode, Benedict said Latin American Indians had been “silently longing” to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors took over their native lands centuries ago.”In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture,” he said.Many Indians, however, say the conquest of Latin America by Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese lead to misery, enslavement and death.Benedict, speaking in Spanish and Portuguese to the bishops in Brazil’s holiest shrine city, also warned that legalised contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten “the future of the peoples” and said the historic Catholic identity of the region is at risk.Nampa-AP