Editor:
Father Gregorio’s recent commentary on Sabbath rest somehow morphed into another of his polemics against capitalism (Sabbath rest has become foreign to our culture, Jan. 17). Even more astoundingly, he managed to conflate Karl Marx’s Das Kapital with the Gospel.
It is well to remember that the practice of Marx’s economic theory certainly resulted in a leveling of the playing field – everyone (but members of the ruling politburos, of course), became equally impoverished and oppressed. Millions of people were murdered and imprisoned around the world – many of these for the crime of being Christian. As for the teachings of Christ, they were declared treason and anathema.
Father Gregorio seems to have little faith in his fellow Catholics’ charity and love of justice. Time and again in his writings he suggests that we need a government’s benevolent oversight to comply with Christ’s beatitudes. I suggest that he is mistaken in this. And I also suggest that a large and ever-more powerful government will never be capable of acting in a Christ-like manner; there are far too many examples in history to the contrary.
David P. Dean
Cape May Court House