I’ve often joked that if Rick Santorum fails to receive the Republican nomination for presidency, he should launch his candidacy for the papacy. God knows the former Pennsylvania senator has delivered enough unctuous rants to be an honorary pontiff.
Santorum would be the second Roman Catholic president elected. President John F. Kennedy was the first and many were skeptical of his candidacy because of it. Many believed that if President Kennedy was elected, our head-of-state would actually reside in the Bascilla of St. John Lateran rather than the White House.
To be succinct, President Kennedy was hurt by a problem that is now Mitt Romney’s. But Catholicism isn’t considered a freaky faith anymore, so Santorum has been able to be as pious as the pope himself on the campaign trail.
He opposes a woman’s right to choose, as does the Catholic Church. He has shown opposition to the availability of birth control and its use, in accordance with biblical doctrine. He doesn’t support gay
marriage; in line with many priests in their attempts to pray away the gay.
But aside from social policy, Santorum is so removed from the Church’s beliefs on matters of policy that in reality he would have as much a chance at the papacy as he does the presidency.
“Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can’t function well if people can’t trust each other and people aren’t honest, if a deal isn’t a deal,” said Santorum in an interview with John Harwood for The New York Times.
“That’s not to say that people don’t do bad things and commit fraud,” he continued. “But the more moral the people are in their business dealings, the less paperwork you need, the more handshakes you can have, the more the wheels of capitalism work better because there’s trust in the marketplace.”
Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) released June 7, 2009 expressed views similar to Santorum’s, “The economic sphere is neither ethically neutral, nor inherently inhuman and opposed to society.
“It is part and parcel of human activity precisely because it is human, it must be structured and governed in
an ethical manner,” he wrote.
However, later in the edict the pope’s rhetoric becomes more akin to the complaints of the Occupy Wall Street
movement, more so than the ideas of Santorum or the Republican Party.
“Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”
What ideas has the pope supported to better structure capitalism? First, the pope as well as OWS has supported the so called Robin Hood-tax. The Robin Hood-tax is a financial transactions tax that would either be levied nationally or worldwide and would hopefully recoup funds lost in the Great Recession.
And different from the views of conservatives, Pope Benedict XVI called healthcare an “inalienable right.”
His support for universal healthcare is within the doctrine of the church to care for the poor and the needy; it’s the kind of social justice the Church ordinarily supports and the Republican Party opposes.
Santorum’s dismissal of climate change as tomfoolery by scientists is also quite at odds with the Catholic Church which has shown grave concern. At a U.N. conference in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI called for action. “I hope that all members of the international community agree on a responsible and credible response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, taking into account the needs of the poorest and future generations.”
So if President Obama is the socialist Antichrist that Santorum has tried to make him out to be, you have to wonder then what kind of dastardly demon inhabits the Vatican?
