Inequality is a moral dilemma for Catholics

Simplistic economics and even more simplistic theology.

For your consideration:
The incomes of the poor, working and middle classes have been falling for years while the rich increase their wealth and decrease their tax rates.
Holding political office used to be a finacial sacrifice for the sake of public servive. As a review of Congress now reveals, public office is now a means for becoming rich. So the millionaire Senators and Representatives, not surprisingly, support the private sector millionaires by passing laws that benefit both.
The rich stealing from the poor is a sin. The misery it is causing is widespread & real.
Therefore, I will suggest to you that supporting the Republican economic policy is a grevious sin. I leave it to you to work out with Christ if it a "mortal sin" for you.
I hope you enjoy your BMWs.

Thank you, Mr. Garcia!
When Jesus first announced the public ministry, he came to bring real Good News to the poor, to liberate the captives, etc.

In Matt 25 we read of the feeding of the hungry and the clothing of the naked and the sheltering of the homeless, with no exceptions due to immigration status, and the healing of the sick.

Nothing here about massive tax rebates and deferments

Of course, we as Catholics, or otherwise, should not fail to help with the very basic of needs of the truly poor who are legally in this country. Working through the parish system of charitable relief including food banks, we probably do that pretty well. There are some caveats, however. First of all, a poverty lifestyle in the US for those on food stamps, with government housing subsidy and access to charitable giving probably constitutes upper class living in most of the world. Secondly, we need to modulate our generosity to focus on those who truly cannot help themselves, such as the invalids, mentally incompetent and the very young. Currently, our corrupt welfare system encourages those on the dole to stay there. 40% of all babies are born to women on food stamps! Why are they having babies to make the situation worse?? The best and usually only charitable giving should be following some effort on the part of the able poor. This might include successful enrollment and completion of job training, community service work, etc. Otherwise our charity is merely creating a monster with an insatiable appetite for increasingly dwindling resources. Call it "tough love" or whatever, but please recall that the government only got into the charity business in the Great Depression. Now, entitlements are the major expenditure of government. That must end.

“The larger issues are the moral and ethical ones of whether we want a society that is fair and just to all including the distribution of wealth or a society with a small corporate elite hoarding much of the country's wealth and income.”

Mario, I always enjoy reading your stuff, but until today I begin to realize that you still have some of our Latino revolutionary blood flowing through your veins. ¡¿How, in heavens name, are you ever going to convince us readers about that slob prophet Jesus of Nazareth wanting to set up his big plan for living and sharing with one another, just as brothers and sisters, so that everybody lives happily here on earth?!

According to some, Jesus even set up an organization to help us live HIS WAY, which he presents to us in his prayer: “OUR FATHER, THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH JUST AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” THAT SAYS IT ALL: THE REASON FOR JESUS, LIVING, DYING, ARISING FROM THE DEAD AND CONTINUALLY GIVING US HIS SPRIT TODAY, WHICH OBVIOUSLY IS THE ONLY REASON FOR THAT ORGANIZATION, WHICH WE CALL “THE CHURCH”. Jesus was not worried about us saving our souls, that was in the hands of his loving Abbá “Daddy” Father. JESUS LIVED AND DIED TO CHANGE OUR WORLD HERE INTO THAT “OTHER POSSIBLE SOCIETY” THAT “OTHER POSSIBLE WORLD”, very unlike the one we have made for ourselves today, with wars, killings etc, etc., where every 4 seconds one of our sisters or brothers dies of hunger, and we continue merrily destroying our very own Mother Earth by our greed.

Today so many of us are still convinced that “being Catholic” is being “moral”, and that means to be against abortion, family planning, gay marriages, and of course get to church on Sunday on time for the collection, and it even used to include not eating meat on Fridays, all of which Jesus never even mentioned.

So Mario, with your pitch to change the world, best to start out by trying to change our “Catholic Moral Sense”, into something that gets us back closer to the essentials that Jesus spoke about and supposedly left in the hands of “his Church”.

Justiniano de Managua sep. 26.2011

Since the mid 1960's LBJ's War On Poverty has transferred over $16 TRILLION dollars from people who earned it to people who did not earn it. Food Stamps, subsidized housing, Medicaid, etc... a total of 70 giveaway programs. Now we have even more poverty. Looks like we got what we paid for. Do we really want to pay for more of the same?

Since the mid 1960's LBJ's War On Poverty has transferred over $16 TRILLION dollars from people who earned it to people who did not earn it. Food Stamps, subsidized housing, Medicaid... a total of 70 giveaway programs. Now we have even more poverty. Looks like we got what we paid for.
If this comment is being censored, please let me know.

My last comment:
1. Took on the idea, not the messenger.
2. Use appropriate language.
3. Kept to the point.
Not good enough, got censored anyway.