Links for 11/30/16

File this in "another attempt to undermine the pope." Fr. James Schall, SJ, at Crisis, asserts right in the beginning of his piece that "Most people do think that the pope has or soon will change Catholic doctrine on abortion and many other related issues." Most people? I do not know anyone who thinks that and I know a fair number of serious RCs. Later, he writes: "Pope Francis has had a good education as befits the Jesuit priestly tradition. But he makes no bones of the fact that he is not himself intellectually oriented in his overall outlook, as were perhaps John Paul II and Benedict XVI." Yes, the poor, not benighted Argentine. And, later, "In this light, the “concern” that exists today is whether the promise to Peter that what Christ did and held would be kept alive in its fullness." Alas, the Holy Father wishes to restore a central teaching of Jesus Christ, that He came to proclaim mercy to the sinner and good news to the poor, and for this Fr. Schall suggests he is virtually a heretic. Can you imagine if someone had written an article like this about John Paul II? Bishops and cardinals and EWTN and the Knights of Columbus would be falling all over themselves to rebut it. Now? Not so much.

 At Politico, "Goldman Sachs poised for return to power." So, the company that survived through the good graces of the federal government in 2008 is now returning to power on the strength of the election of a populist president. Of all the contradictions that Trump seems to skate around, this one may prove the hardest. Hard working men and women in the heartland will now see the country's economic policies dictated by a veteran of one of the most amoral companies known to the history of mankind. 

At RNS, Mark Silk sees the prosperity Gospel making a comeback, sort of the spiritual corollary of the return of Goldman Sachs. Of all the variations on the Gospel, the prosperity Gospel is both the most foolish and the most dangerous. It is to theology what pet rocks were to marketing.