SUMMARY: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the world's largest private philanthropic organization, with an endowment of $50 billion. Melinda Gates plays a huge role in shaping its work, and her new book, "The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World," chronicles some of the inspiring men and women she has met through it. Judy Woodruff talks to Gates about politics and equality.
SUMMARY: A scathing new grand jury report in Pennsylvania describes decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. At least 1,000 children were molested by more than 300 clergy, the panel found, which also claims a conspiracy of silence extended all the way to the Vatican. Judy Woodruff sits down with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Fr. Thomas Reese of Religion News Service.
SUMMARY: One of the most recognized faces of the American Catholic Church was removed from the public ministry last month, making Cardinal Theodore McCarrick the highest ranking Catholic official in the nation to be removed for sexual abuse of a minor. Now the New York Times reports that McCarrick touched young adult seminarians. John Yang learns more Rev. James Martin of America magazine.
SUMMARY: In a landmark manifesto on family life, Pope Francis called for Catholics to put conscience over dogma on critical moral issues. His statement also suggested a possible relaxing of the ban on divorced Catholics taking communion. Judy Woodruff gets reactions from Gloria Purvis of Global Catholic Network, Amanda June Gargus of Georgetown University and Marianne Duddy-Burke of DignityUSA.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Today's pronouncement from the Pope on family life was two years in the making. Pope Francis explicitly called for the church to be less judgmental.
Instead, he said more support is needed for single and unmarried parents, as well as same-sex couples. Divorced or remarried Catholics shouldn't be judged or discriminated against in church life. Priests can be merciful when it comes to delivering communion. But he didn't change doctrine on same-sex marriage or on the role of contraception.
We sample some of the reaction now with Amanda June Gargus. She is the student administrator at campus ministry at Georgetown University's Law Center. Gloria Purvis is the host of a radio show on the EWTN's Catholic Television Network called “Morning Glory.” And Marianne Duddy-Burke is the executive director of Dignity USA, which works on support changes for the LGBT community in the Catholic Church.
And we welcome all three of you to the program.
So, let's begin by — I just want to ask each one of you, what do you think of this latest statement by Pope Francis?
Let me start with you, Ms. Gargus.
AMANDA JUNE GARGUS, Georgetown University: I think it's a great thing.
I think it falls well within what the Pope has been saying all year in this year of mercy of being in love with our neighbors and how we show mercy towards the people around us, so, the saints and the sinners, those that conform with how we see God's love and those who may not necessarily be acting in the way that maybe traditional Catholics tend to think of the church acting.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Gloria Purvis, what about you? What was your reaction?
GLORIA PURVIS, Global Catholic Network: My reaction was, this is quite a merciful message. It had a lot for everyone.
I think it was a challenge for everyone. He clearly speaks within the confines of the church's understanding of marriage, faithful, fruitful, faithful forever, and yet, at the same time, he says we need to be merciful to everyone, walk with them.
And one of favorite lines in the exhortation is where he says love coexists with imperfection. And so I think there is a hopeful message for all of us. We all fall short of perfection. But if we're willing to listen and think with the mind of the church and try to form our consciences properly, the church is there with us.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Marianne Duddy-Burke, what about you? What did you think when you read this?
MARIANNE DUDDY-BURKE, DignityUSA: Yes, I find it to be a very uneven document. There are certainly places where it soars. I love the emphasis on respecting the formed consciences of so many of us and pastoral care, starting from the needs of the person.
I think those are fantastic and really consistent with a lot of what Pope Francis has been about. And then there are areas where it really falls short of what I think people were hoping for, and that's certainly true on the issue of LGBT people, where there really isn't a lot of progress in this piece.
SUMMARY: Pope Francis has bluntly criticized global capitalism for causing environmental destruction and tragic consequences for world's poorest citizens. Ahead of the pontiff's first visit to the United States, economics correspondent Paul Solman takes a closer look at his economic beliefs.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the U.S. next week is generating huge interest and expectation.
Part of that excitement is rooted in the different tone the pope has taken on a number of issues, from marriage to the role of women in the church. But he has also issued a tough critique of capitalism and called for more action on climate change.
We kick off our coverage of the Pope’s trip, which will continue all next week, with a look at those issues from our economics correspondent Paul Solman.
It’s part of our weekly series Making Sen$e, which airs every Thursday on the NewsHour.
PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour): Are you excited that the pope is coming here?
CHILDREN: Yay!
WOMAN: It’s a blessing that the Pope is coming to visit us, especially the poor people that need a little bit more.
PAUL SOLMAN: A senior center in East Harlem, the poorest part of Manhattan and the one with the closest ties to Latin America, home to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentinean Jesuit priest now known as Pope Francis.
MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO, Speaker , New York City Council: And just south of this district, we have the most wealthy district in the city of New York in the Upper East Side.
PAUL SOLMAN: Melissa Mark-Viverito is the first Puerto Rico-born speaker of the New York City Council, where she also represents El Barrio.
MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO: There is a real contrast, which speaks to really the vision and, I think, the philosophy of what the Pope is all about.
PAUL SOLMAN: The Pope put that vision and philosophy bluntly in June, with his controversial encyclical on climate change and poverty, blaming what he calls unbridled capitalism for ruining the Earth, with tragic effects on those he cares most about, the world’s poorest.
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PAUL SOLMAN: The pope, however, is more than hinting. He writes that — quote — “Whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, a market that doesn’t take into account fundamental rights of the poor and underprivileged.”
The Pope being unavailable to respond to economist Richard Sylla’s defense of markets, I asked his radical bedfellow, Naomi Klein, for a reply.
NAOMI KLEIN, Author: Yes, this is a system that has pulled many people out of poverty, but it has also thrown many people into destitution. Now, my goal here is not to say capitalism has never done anything good. It’s to say we need a better system, because now the fate of our species hangs in the balance.
PAUL SOLMAN: Or, as Reverend Wallis puts it....
REV. JIM WALLIS, Founder, Sojourners: Is our economy today good news for the poor? The economy is for, more and more, the very top, the very few, and the middle are all very insecure. And half of God’s children, half the world’s people are left behind by the economy. God’s economy is very simple. There is enough, if we share it. It’s really as simple as that.
In one simple quote, Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. sums up the hypocrisy in the 'pro-life' movement:
I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.
This quote applies well to many Republican lawmakers and anti-choice extremists who continue to introduce/pass misogynist laws restricting a woman's reproductive rights. At the same time, the GOP works to shut down women's health clinics, with a special vengeance towards Planned Parenthood (#StandWithPP). You don't hear of these Right Wing anti-choice extremists adopting children from unplanned pregnancies. But you do hear of them cutting government programs like school lunches for children, cutting government financial and heath care aid to families who are homeless and/or in need, and blocking free college education. No, the goals of these hypocrites seem to be more about controlling women's bodies and women's futures. It's good to hear Sister Chittister, a Benedictine nun, define the GOP double talk so well.
An outspoken advocate for women, Sister Joan Chittister is an author of 50 books and a lecturer. Holding a Ph.D. from Penn State University, she is also a research associate in a division of Cambridge University. Other subjects of her writing includes women in the church and society, human rights, peace and justice, religious life and spirituality. She has appeared in the media on numerous shows including Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, Bill Moyers, BBC, NPR, and Oprah Winfrey. You can visit Joan Chittister's website (here).
SUMMARY: Today the Pope released an encyclical calling for action to combat climate change. Judy Woodruff speaks to Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., about what the encyclical means to Catholic doctrine, and how it could influence international policy.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Pope Francis made an unprecedented call to action to tackle climate change today. He issued the first encyclical dedicated solely to the environment, calling it one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.
It was the kickoff of an effort to spread the message to the faithful and others in months to come.
Pope Francis issued a nearly 200-page document casting climate change as a moral issue, not simply a political or economic debate.
Lead climate researchers joined in the formal release at the Vatican.
JOHN SCHELLNHUBER, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research: I think the encyclical, by listening to the science and to reflecting to the science, is bringing together two big messages. One message comes from reasoning, from ingenuity, from technological progress. The other comes from faith, moral, ethical values, Christianity, but they combine into one message.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That message, to the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, is: Global warming is mostly manmade. It comes heavily from burning fossil fuel. And it disproportionally harms the poor.
In the encyclical, the pontiff warns: “The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes.”
Rich countries must act immediately, Francis says, to cut consumption of fossil fuels and help poor nations create sustainable development.
Pope Francis has approved the creation of a Vatican tribunal for judging bishops accused of covering up or failing to act in cases of child sexual abuse by priests, an unprecedented step long demanded by victims in the more than three decades that the Roman Catholic Church has publicly dealt with the abuse scandal.
Bishops, regarded as “princes of the church” and sovereign in their dioceses, until now could be disciplined only directly by the pope, but until Francis, no pope had publicly confronted or demoted even those bishops accused of gross negligence. Under Francis’ predecessors — Pope Benedict XVI and, before him, John Paul II — the Vatican defrocked about 850 priests for sexual abuse and penalized about 2,500 more, but there was no similar judicial mechanism for bishops.
Advocates for abuse victims had a range of reactions, from skepticism to watchful optimism.
Francis’ move could affect bishops around the world as awareness of sexual abuse and calls for accountability spread, even to the church in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the topic is still largely taboo.
It will also bring new scrutiny to a number of bishops currently under investigation over accusations that they covered up abuse by priests. They include Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of Minneapolis and St. Paul, whose archdiocese was indicted last week; Cardinal George Pell of Australia, the head of the Vatican’s finances, who was recently called to testify by a government commission in Australia; and Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, who was convicted on a misdemeanor charge for negligently handling a case involving a pedophile priest. He resigned his post recently but remains a bishop.
A mechanism for holding bishops accountable has been a high priority of the 17-member papal commission on abuse that was also created by Francis. That commission includes two abuse survivors and many laypeople, and it is headed by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who was sent to Boston at the height of the abuse scandal there, and to two other dioceses before that, to clean up scandals left behind by previous bishops.
There are many unanswered questions as to how the tribunal will conduct its inquiries and proceedings, including what punishments it would impose on bishops found guilty.
Peter Saunders, one of the two abuse survivors on the commission, said he was pleased that Francis seemed to be listening to their recommendations but said, “When allegations against senior clergy are brought to the tribunal, we’ll see whether it’s working.”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in St. Louis for their semiannual meeting, said they had no advance knowledge of the creation of a new tribunal. (Among those attending the meeting was Archbishop Nienstedt.) In interviews, bishops said that they welcomed the step as a move toward transparency and would cooperate fully.
“It’s something new and necessary in the church because it does provide a standard and a policy that holds bishops accountable in the way we’ve held our clergy accountable,” said Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington, Vt., who was a spokesman in the archdiocese of Boston at the height of the scandals there in the early to mid-2000s.
The five-point plan announced on Wednesday says the tribunal will be housed in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that polices adherence to church doctrine and that already handles the cases of priests accused of abuse.
Francis will choose a secretary, and additional permanent staff members will be hired for the tribunal, said the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. The procedures will be re-evaluated in five years, he said.
Father Lombardi said the tribunal would also examine some of the abuse cases perpetrated by clergy members that were “still pending” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. “They are still very numerous and have accumulated,” he said. The tribunal will “accelerate” matters, he said, noting that money had been set aside to bolster the new section.
Father Lombardi said that the tribunal’s responsibility for judging bishops would include questions of omission: “what one should have done and didn’t do,” he said. “This is another kind of responsibility and shortcoming, and has to be judged in an appropriate way with appropriate rules.”
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a support and advocacy group for victims, said in a statement that she suspected that the new panel “won’t make a difference” because it relies on church officials to judge other church officials. She said that a more effective move would be for the church to support the reform of secular laws to strengthen the prosecution of those responsible for abuse.
Voice of the Faithful, a church reform movement first created to respond to the abuse scandal, said, “These steps are the most promising the Vatican has yet taken.” Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a Boston-based group that documents cases of sexual abuse by priests, called the development encouraging because it “provides a structure, personnel, a budget and a brief for actually acting.”
In the United States, where the church has been struggling with the question of sexual abuse by members of the clergy since the first case of serial abuse became public in Louisiana in the 1980s, the problem remains far from resolved.
Last year, there were 37 allegations of sexual abuse made to the church by those who were currently minors, and another 600 “historical allegations” made by those who are older, said Francesco C. Cesareo, chairman of the United States bishops conference’s National Review Board on sexual abuse, in his report to the bishops on Wednesday. Six of the current allegations made last year were substantiated, and other cases were still open, he said.
Given that, he said, “it should not be concluded that the sexual abuse of minors is a problem of the past that has already been addressed.”
“This is the missing link in the church’s response to the abuse crisis,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large of the Jesuit weekly magazine America. “It is a long overdue and delayed response to this problem, but it’s an absolutely indispensable step. This is what everyone was waiting for and all were calling for in all quarters of the church.”
Father Martin suggested that action had been slow to come because there was a “lingering reluctance to hold bishops accountable if they themselves had not committed the abuse” and because, after the Second Vatican Council shifted greater power from Rome to the bishops, of “the traditional authority of bishops over their dioceses.”
SUMMARY: More than 800 priests have been defrocked over the years in connection to sexual abuse scandals, and 2,500 have been penalized. Now a Vatican tribunal is being established to publicly judge and discipline bishops accused of covering up or failing to act on reports of child sex abuse. John Allen of The Boston Globe joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the historic move.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Pope Francis took church leaders and Catholics around the world by surprise today when he used an annual Christmas event in Rome to sharply rebuke and audience of top church officials for their shortcomings.
The cardinals, bishops and priests of the Curia, who run the Holy See, sat mostly silent and unsmiling as the Pope delivered a scalding review of their behavior.
POPE FRANCIS, Leader of Catholic Church (through interpreter): Let’s start with the sickness of feeling immortal, immune or, even more, indispensable and therefore of neglecting the necessary routine checkups.
GWEN IFILL: Francis said the Vatican officials have a spiritual Alzheimer’s that makes them forget their real purpose, and he listed 15 illnesses, or sins, from vanity to gossip-mongering to materialism.
POPE FRANCIS (through interpreter): There is also the sickness of the stony mind and spirit, of those who along the way lose their inner serenity, their vivacity and their audacity and end up hiding behind papers, becoming machines for practices, and not men of God.
GWEN IFILL: The first non-European pope in 1,300 years has increasingly confronted the Italian-dominated Curia. Internal power struggles were widely blamed for Pope Benedict’s decision last year to resign.
For some insight on what led to the pope’s remarks today, I am joined by Kevin Eckstrom, editor in chief at Religion News Service.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now, possible signals that the Roman Catholic Church may be softening its attitudes on gays and divorced Catholics. That’s what some observers are taking from a report out today marking the midway point of a two-week meeting of bishops at the Vatican.
Joining us from Rome to fill us in on all this is John Allen. He covers the Vatican and the Catholic Church for The Boston Globe and its Web site, Crux. He also serves as senior Vatican analyst for CNN.
John Allen, welcome back to the “NewsHour.”
I was just reading, some gay rights groups are calling this a seismic change in a positive direction. How do you see it?
JOHN ALLEN, The Boston Globe: Well, Judy, I think it’s important to be clear about what this is and what it is not.
What it is not is a change in Catholic teaching on marriage. The bishops at this gathering, which is called a synod, have made it abundantly clear there is not going to be any change in Catholic doctrine, which is that marriage is a relationship between a man and woman that is permanent and it’s open to life.
Now, that said, the bishops have also made clear that they want a more positive way of engaging people who don’t live that teaching, whether we’re talking about gays and lesbians, whether we’re talking about people who are cohabitating outside a marriage, whether it’s people who have divorced and remarried or whatever.
They don’t want the first thing they hear from the Catholic Church to be a note of condemnation. They want it to be a note of friendship and then, after that, we will see where the conversation goes. So, fundamentally, this is a change in tone, rather than a change in content. But given the fact that gays and lesbians in particular have become quite accustomed to hearing messages of condemnation and disapproval from the Catholic Church, I guess, you know, you could call that a seismic change in tonality, if not a dramatic change in content.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Vatican officials announced today that the pope will replace top management of what’s often referred to as the Vatican Bank. It’s more formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion and is reported to manage nearly $8 billion in assets.
It’s been plagued for years by several scandals that include charges of corruption, money laundering and mismanagement. That change was one of several announced today that impact the Vatican’s financial and property units. It came two days after Pope Francis met in Vatican City with six victims of sexual abuse by clergy. He apologized and asked for forgiveness from them during a homily and private mass.
The pope’s response to the sexual abuse scandals has been criticized by a number of victims.
John Allen covers the Vatican and global Catholicism for The Boston Globe. He joins me from Denver.
So, let’s talk a little bit about the shuffle at the bank. Why is this particular bank so significant?
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): President Obama’s meeting with the pope today focused international attention on two of the most well-known leaders on the planet, what they share in common, and how they differ.
The president’s first ever visit with Pope Francis began with pomp and ceremonial tradition, as he proceeded through the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Wonderful to meet you.
GWEN IFILL: Their private meeting lasted nearly an hour, almost twice as long as expected. It came as Francis enjoys tremendous popularity in the second year of his pontificate.
Going in, the President told the pope he’s a great admirer.
Later, at a news conference with Italy’s prime minister, he underscored that sentiment.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems, and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests.
GWEN IFILL: But the two sides offered strikingly different accounts of the papal audience. Mr. Obama said they focused largely on areas where they have similar views.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The largest bulk of the time was discussing two central concerns of his. One is the issues of the poor, the marginalized, those without opportunity, and growing inequality. And then we spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of conflict and how elusive peace is around the world.
GWEN IFILL: By contrast, Vatican officials emphasized differences with the president’s policies. High atop that list is the Affordable Care Act mandate that requires employers to include birth control coverage. Another is abortion. President Obama supports abortion rights, while the pope defends the Roman Catholic Church’s anti-abortion stance.
A Vatican statement said: “There was a discussion the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection, as well as the issue of immigration reform.”
The president acknowledged addressing those subjects, but with the Vatican’s secretary of state, not the pope.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms in my conversations with His Holiness. In fact, that really wasn’t a topic of conversation. I think His Holiness and the Vatican have been clear about their position on a range of issues. Some of them, I differ with.
GWEN IFILL: Whatever their differences, the two men were all smiles as they parted. The pope may travel to the U.S. in September of next year for a world gathering on families in Philadelphia.
SUMMARY: With public opinion ratings “the envy of every politician in Washington,” Pope Francis received President Obama at the Vatican for an hour-long visit. Gwen Ifill talks to Rev. Thomas Reese of the National Catholic Reporter and Stephen Schneck of the Catholic University of America to make sense of the meeting and assess what unites the pontiff and the president.
STEPHEN SCHNECK, Catholic University of America: You know, I think probably the most important thing to realize is that, at one level, they both share kind of an interesting vision.
That is, both gentlemen, I think, take the measure of civilization to be the quality of life for the poorest and the most vulnerable in the world. And so that’s something that they both share.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): The Vatican has long been criticized for its handling of sexual abuse cases, but today’s report from a United Nations panel was especially harsh.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child said the Vatican had not adequately acknowledged past crimes, and cultivated a code of silence that provided immunity for perpetrators. The Vatican calls the report distorted and unfair, in that it ignores corrective actions taken by the church.
Here to flesh out those arguments are Reverend Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of Canada’s Catholic Salt and Light Television Network and an English-language spokesperson for the Vatican, and Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
SUMMARY: The revelation that the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago hid decades of child sex abuse was revealed through documents as part of a settlement with victims. The papers describe how church leadership reassigned priests accused of abuse to different parishes. Gwen Ifill talks to Jeff Anderson, attorney for the plaintiffs.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): In less than a year, Pope Francis has shaken up some of the images and public perception of the Catholic Church. TIME magazine selected him today as its person of the year.
His remarks and actions have captivated Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, whether washing the feet of prisoners on Holy Thursday or, when asked about the status of gays and lesbians in the church, telling reporters, "Who am I to judge?" or decrying the problems of economic inequality.
The ripple effect has been remarkable. We assess his impact with Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity University -- Trinity Washington University, and Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute.
Welcome to you both.
Let's start off with that, "Who am I to judge?" comment, because that struck me, because some people could have said, if not the pope, who? Is that what caught your attention?
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the week's top news, including the short-term Iran nuclear agreement, the pope's writings on capitalism, proposed changes to campaign finance rules and things to be grateful for.
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DAVID BROOKS: .... really have to be tough on, the Iranians are counting on us, or the entire world, that the sanction regimes will begin to dissolve, that once companies get the chance to make some money in Iran, it will all fall apart. Somehow, if the Western alliance can really hold the sanctions together, then this is a worth -- a risk worth taking.
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DAVID BROOKS: The Saudis -- though, to be fair, the Saudis are really upset. The Gulf states are really upset. The Israelis are really upset. The people who are most vulnerable to an Iranian nuclear weapon are really upset. And that, to me, is to be trusted. It seems unlikely that a regime that went so far to get a nuclear weapon is suddenly going to pull back and give it up.
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HARI SREENIVASAN: OK. Let's shift gears.
The pope came out with -- I want to get this correct -- his first apostolic exhortation. It was his first major work, big report. In there, he takes quite a few very specific jabs at capitalism, calling it a new tyranny. I mean, popes in the past have had these concerns before, but really he's laying this out. And some of the sort of pope watchers, experts are saying that this is the agenda for how to reform the Christian church.
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, well, I -- I actually have a lot of sympathy.
I'm a fan of capitalism, but I have a lot of sympathy for it. And it should be remembered that Benedict and John Paul II issued some extremely critical statements on capitalism. That is the job of the Catholic Church, to be a balance to the materialistic drives of our culture and of economy.
I guess I would wish he would emphasize two things, first, that capitalism over the last 25 years has been an incredible moral good. It has reduced poverty more in the last 25 years than ever before in human history, mostly in Asia. But that's been a phenomenal good. That's relieved suffering. And that has been a product of capitalism.
The second thing I would say is sometimes I think the analysis and some of the language used this time was too narrowly economic. One of the things capitalism does is, it does enhance and exacerbate the sin of pride, making yourself, the material world the center of your universe, instead of God's will.
But the doesn't only happen in capitalism. That can happen in faculty clubs. It can happen at NGOs. And so that is a spiritual sin. And to talk about some of the spiritual sins that capitalism encourages in a broader scale seems to me the right way to do it. To focus on a certain sort of economic theory, that seems to me a little out of the pope's lane.
MARK SHIELDS: I think it's very much in the pope's lane.
And I think that survival of the fittest has never been a tenet of either Judeo-Christian values or Christian -- our culture. And I think the pope has confronted us with a fundamental question: What are we first? Are we a free market system, that we have confidence that, untrammeled and unfettered, it will eventually provide good for more people?
Or are we a community, a community of human beings of equal dignity, and that a capitalist system, a free enterprise system, under regulation and required regulation -- and that's what he -- that's the difference he makes more than any to me in the economic sphere, which is not private charity and private generosity, which have always been important, but that we have a collective responsibility to make that sure all of us, the least among us, through our collective instrument of government, have education, have health care, have shelter, have food, that that's not just a matter of individual kindness or compassion.
And I -- to me, that was it. And David's right. It's not a deviation from John Paul II or Benedict or past popes, but the emphasis that he brings to it, the passion he brings to it, that Pope Francis does, as well as the sense of engaging the world, I mean, it's an optimistic, upbeat, and passionate pope that we are seeing right now who drives a Ford Focus.
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MARK SHIELDS: We had 32 years, from 1976 to 2008, in which we had elections.
As somebody who spent his early year in politics, before I turned to journalism, by default, I can tell you, they were clean. Ronald Reagan three times ran for president. He accepted the limits on contributions, the limits on what you could spend, and he ran on public financing in the fall elections, when he won 49 states one time and 44 the next, George H.W. Bush twice, Bill Clinton twice, George W. Bush.
And it changed in 2008. President Obama was the first president not to abide by the limits in the general election. And then along comes the Citizens United case decision at the Supreme Court, which took off all limits on spending.
We had in the last election $470 million contributed by 100 individuals. And we don't know through these 501(c)(4)s, which are -- list themselves as social welfare organizations, charitable organizations, we don't know who is contributing. They can hide behind that.
So, we have gone from total disclosure and limitations to no disclosure and no limits. And anybody who thinks that is good for politics in the long run, you know, I just wish anybody on the Supreme Court who voted that way had ever run for sheriff, because they would know, people who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic.
They have some issue. They have some interest. And it's -- you know, it may be world peace. It may be preserving carried interest. But it's not altruistic.
SUMMARY: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's top political news, including prospects of a government shutdown, conflict and leadership within the Republican party, the politics of choosing a new Federal Reserve chairman and the shooting at the Navy Yard.
SUMMARY: In a frank interview, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must find a balance between "small-minded rules," like doctrines against abortion and homosexuality, and the need to be more merciful. Jeffrey Brown talks to Father Matt Malone of America Magazine for more on the practical implications of the pontiff's comments.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Pope Francis drew new attention today with some surprising remarks about gay Catholics, as he wrapped up a trip to the Americas that drew enormous crowds.
For 82 minutes, the pope fielded questions on his flight home from Brazil. And for the first time ever, there were no restrictions. Francis was asked directly about a so-called gay lobby within the Vatican, an allegedly powerful influence inside the church. He struck a conciliatory tone on homosexuality in general and within the priestly ranks.
POPE FRANCIS, leader of Catholic Church: Everyone writes about the gay lobby. I still haven't found anyone who gave me an identity card in the Vatican with "gay" written on it. If someone is gay and he searches for the lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?
JUDY WOODRUFF: The comments suggested a shift in acceptance, but not in Roman Catholic doctrine, which still holds that homosexual acts are disordered. At the same time, Francis upheld the longstanding prohibition on women in the priesthood. But he did advocate an expanded role and cited an exalted role model.
POPE FRANCIS: The madonna, Maria, was more important than the apostles, bishops, deacons, and priests. Women are more important than bishops and priests.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The pope's comments came as he returned from his first trip abroad since his March election. The 76-year-old Argentine had attended World Youth Day events in Brazil, including two huge outdoor services in Rio de Janeiro.
On Saturday, he told young people in soccer-mad Brazil, which hosts next year's World Cup, to set their eyes on a higher prize.
POPE FRANCIS: Jesus offers us something more than the World Cup. He offers us the possibility of a fruitful life without end.
JUDY WOODRUFF: He also exhorted Brazilian bishops to get out of their parishes and spread more of their Catholic faith, which has seen many of the faithful leaving for evangelical Protestant sects. Then on Sunday in the shadow of Rio's famed Christ the Redeemer mountaintop icon, an estimated three million people gathered on famed Copacabana Beach.
SUMMARY: The pope's remarks on gay Catholics may suggest a shift in acceptance, but not a change in church policy or teaching. Judy Woodruff talks to John Allen of The National Catholic Reporter, who has been covering the pontiff's trip to Brazil, to discuss how Pope Francis has started to change the perception of the Catholic church.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Pope Francis formally took office today with a special mass and ceremonies.
We begin with a report from James Mates of Independent Television News in Rome.
JAMES MATES, Independent Television News: He is promising a simpler, humbler papacy. And it was amongst the ordinary pilgrims to St. Peter's that Pope Francis started his day.
It is common now for a pope to kiss babies, less so for him to get out of the popemobile and walk over to give a blessing to a disabled worshiper. The inauguration mass at St. Peter's Square was shorter and less ornate than in the past, but it could not be described as either simple or understated.
Heads of state, all their representatives occupied the front rows, but this service was squarely aimed at the 150,000 pilgrims who had stood since early morning to see the new leader of their church, among them, of course, many from Argentina, who watched as for the first time ever the symbol of the papacy, the fisherman's ring, was placed on the finger of a man from Latin America.
His homily was an instruction to get back to core principles. Embrace, he said, the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.
For almost a week now, his introduction to the papacy has been a series of services, meetings and now this magnificent inauguration. But after today, the work proper begins and the to-do list is considerable. In his first week, Francis has been spectacularly successful in defining the style of his papacy. Winning approval for its substance will take a lot longer.
SUMMARY: As Pope Francis officially assumes his title, he will face some established challenges and scandals. But the pontiff has already signaled a shift and charmed followers by preaching for greater humility. Jeffrey Brown talks with John Allen from the National Catholic Reporter and CNN about what messages the pope may hope to send.
