Has the Church Demonstrated Her Preferential Option for the Poor during the Pandemic?

I don't think so.

6 minutes into video  
 

Large and powerful political structures should be restrained from telling intimate and local structures how to live and function as a community. And the catechism goes further. It goes on to say that the principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism that sets limits on state intervention.  

In other words, collectivist socialism that is not compatible with Catholic social teaching or the principles of solidarity or subsidiarity. Now it's important to remember that solidarity and subsidiarity aren't exclusive to each other. One of the things that often happens when political principles get applied in the real world is that they end up falling prey to these false dichotomies that exist everywhere within the political spectrum.  
 

So, if you're someone who gravitates to one end of the political spectrum, you might be someone who says, oh, I love subsidiarity, and you talk about it all the time, and then you neglect solidarity as if that doesn't apply. And then the truth is, the same is true for the opposite end of the spectrum. And that's because people are getting the sense of a false dichotomy that exists between them. The truth of Catholic social teaching is that these two things (subsidiarity and solidarity) are meant to work together in harmony to produce a common good. So, for example, subsidiarity; It doesn't mean that we're supposed to be living in some sort of extreme individualism. Solidarity reminds us that we are accountable to our neighbors and to each other. And we need to help each other, but this help doesn't come primarily from large government structures. It occurs through intimate and local relationships first and foremost. So again, why am I talking about these concepts in the context of this video?  

 

Well, I would say, God willing, we are emerging from a global crisis in which two key strategies became dominant and widespread, and which I would argue clearly breach the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and we as a church seemed far too enthusiastic to endorse these policies in spite of our own teachings to the contrary.  

 

So let me provide you some examples of what I'm talking about. Let's start with lockdowns and mandates. So if you're someone with wealth and assets, it's really only an inconvenience to be prevented from going about your normal day-to-day activities for weeks, months or even years at a time. But if you're someone who's only possession of value, is your labor, which you then have to persistently sell in order to provide for your material needs. In other words, you're among the most vulnerable working-class or the poor. Remember those who solidarity tells us that we need to show a preference for when drafting our governing policies. If that's you, then you're someone for whom being locked down or heavily restricted means being unable to provide for yourself.  
 

But some will say the government accounted for this and provided financial support for such people, to which I would respond with a question which is: which government did that? Which government structure? Because here in Canada it was the absolute highest, it was the federal government. And I'm pretty sure that in most other similar countries they were operating the same way. Notice that this starts to run the risk of violating subsidiarity, but we don't really need to chase that rabbit just yet. I think the bigger concern here with big government just sending out checks to whoever it wants to is that you have to ask where does that money come from? Because if you're just taking it from other working citizens and giving it to other working citizens., you aren't really fixing the solution, you're just circulating it around and around, and that doesn't really solve anything  

To show how absurd this policy is, here's a clip of Canadian finance critic Pierre Poilievre asking this exact same question to a parliamentary Finance Committee reviewing a proposal to inject an extra $7 billion at one point of support and aid that would be sent out to compensate to vulnerable people as well as companies as well as to the media to compensate for the government lockdown policies he was asking this question to members of Justin Trudeau government as well as Finance Canada administrators. 

He tries in a variety of ways, but he doesn't get a response, and eventually he hints at the answer which the other side doesn't seem to want to admit, which is that they are printing money, which is another way of saying they are conjuring money out of thin air money that doesn't exist, and then writing checks with it. Now we all know that counterfeiting money. Producing fake money and then paying for goods with it is illegal for obvious reasons. Firstly because it's fraudulent, it's dishonest and secondly because it can cause real harm to honest people by inserting money that doesn't actually exist into the economy. Printing money is the exact same thing, but it's when the government does it and we all know that only the government is allowed to do corrupt things.

Printing money means writing checks with money that doesn't exist to appease those who are on the receiving end of this fictitious money and the immediate effect of this kind of policy is that it creates inflation.

Now, I know this is exhausting. If you're not familiar with this terminology, so just bear with me. Stick with me. I'm going to start connecting some of these dots for you. Inflation this concept that I just described means that the money that exists in the economy is now worth less because it's been divided up by the addition of cash, fake cash by the government.

So the same amount of wealth still exists in the economy, but now there are more dollar bills which represents that wealth, which means that each dollar bill is now worth less. So if you have a savings account with $5000 in it, when inflation raises, the cost of everything that $5000 isn't worth $5000 anymore because it won't get you what $5000 used to get you.

This means that everything that the working class needs to provide for themselves costs more, making their vulnerability that much more severe. So things like food, fuel, housing, clothing, utilities, all of these things have now gone up in price, which, if you're among the working poor, is a huge injustice.

Here in Canada, the average house price has gone up 21% just in the past year, and it went up significantly more the year before that, when the pandemic started. This means that if you've been excluded from the housing market so far because of a lack of opportunity well, because you started with nothing, you're renting, you're working hard, you're trying to save up to eventually purchase a property of your own, that prospect may have just been ripped away from you because of reckless government policies that favor those who already have wealth at the expense of those who don't.

If I'm going to be totally candid about this, one way of looking at this is that the rich and the powerful, including government officials, threw the poor and vulnerable under the bus, so that they could quarantine themselves from a threat while the poor had to continue to find ways to sell their labor and take the risks that the rich didn't want to take as they hid in their homes that they already owned. The next thing that I think is really important for us to observe and to be attentive to that these policies weren't devised at the local level like subsidiary implores us to do they they came from the largest international agencies we have like the World Health Organization or national agencies like the CDC. or health canada

( Speaking about the hand over fist money printed up by the Trudeau Government during the pandemic which is basically fake money or counterfeit . It might sound good but there is no money )

So the money that exists in the economy is now worth less because it's been divided up by the addition of cash, fake cash by the government. So the same amount of wealth exists in the economy, but now there are more dollar bills which represent that wealth, which means that each dollar bill is now worth less. So if you have a savings account with $5000 in it, when inflation raises the cost of everything that $5000 isn't worth $5000 anymore because it won't get you what $5000 used to get you. This means that everything that the working class needs to provide for themselves costs more, making their vulnerability that much more severe.

So things like food, fuel, housing, clothing, utilities, all of these things have now gone. Up in price, which, if you're among the working poor, is a huge injustice here in Canada, the average house price has gone up 21% just in the past year, and it went up significantly more the year before that, when the pandemic started.

This means that if you've been excluded from the housing market so far because of a lack of opportunity. Well, because you started with nothing. You're renting, you're working hard. You're trying to save up to eventually purchase a property of your own. That prospect may have just been ripped away from you because of reckless government policies that favor those who already have wealth, at the expense of those who don't. If I'm going to be totally candid about this. One way of looking at this is that the rich and the powerful, including government officials, threw the poor and vulnerable under the bus so that they could quarantine themselves from a threat, while the poor had to continue to find ways to sell their labor and take the risks that the rich didn't want to take as they hid in their homes that they already owned

The next thing that I think is really important for us to observe and to be attentive to that these policies weren't devised at the local level like subsidiary implores us to do. They came from the largest international agencies we have like the World Health Organization or national agencies like the CDC. Or Health Canada. And they told local authorities what to do, and then they dutifully did.

So they proposed this one size fits all solution for vast populations of people spread out over huge geographical areas. Really. I mean, globally. If we're going to be honest about this: with no nuances, no appreciation for exemptions to these rules exceptions to these rules, of which there were countless, this approach, if you haven't detected already, is a vulgar infringement on the principle of subsidiarity.

And how did we as a church respond? Sadly, and much to my own lament, we were silent. We kept silent, we acquiesced. Our moral authority to the United Nations, pharmaceutical conglomerates and agencies like the CDC, and lastly, what about that poke? That was imposed through coercive measures. If not mandated, everyone, regardless of age, risk factor, natural immunity, or general health was told that they must cooperate in this collectivist policy. No appreciations or allowance for nuances and specifics like. What if I'm in an age group that has virtually 0 risk of getting seriously sick? Oh well, you need to do it to prevent you from passing it onto others. Again, this sort of collectivist mindset. ,

Well, we now know that that didn't even work. It was utterly ineffective at producing that effect. But millions upon millions of young people were coerced into cooperating with a policy that was based on incomplete research, which we now realize turned out to be wrong, and because the lack of prudence in this could have been sniffed out from miles away with anybody who had a critical instinct or a mustard seeds worth of prudence, many people refused and were fired from their jobs and refused unemployment. Help while being outcast and villainized by the media who received themselves untold billions from the payouts. Money that Mr Polieevre is still wondering if anybody knows what the source of it is.

I made a video a few weeks back in which I admitted that I was struggling and I don't think I was entirely candid about all the reasons why I was really struggling. I think I can be a little more upfront about that now. I was really disturbed by what I was seeing going on and I expected that in a time of crisis and a time of struggle and confusion, those of us who are Catholic, we should be able to turn to the church for clarity and for refuge. But I feel like we as a church betrayed ourselves and those we keep professing to care about, the poor. What was really happening is that we were scared and so we hid in our homes and not everybody could do that. Of course, the most vulnerable and most poor couldn't just do that. And cowardice. Cowardice is bad enough. But then to hide behind a facade of social justice while simultaneously throwing the poor into further destitution. And we congratulated ourselves for doing our part for the common good. That's revolting, and I'm sorry for being so critical and so negative, and I hope that doesn't drive you to the point of despair.

I think it might be helpful to know that this kind of thing isn't unprecedented in the Church's history. When Henry the eighth declared himself the supreme head of the church in England, the majority of bishops ratified the act that was clearly heretical and motivated by his lust for women and power. In fact, I think Saint John Fisher was the only Bishop, Correct me if I'm wrong, who refused to go along with the program and he lost his head for it. Now fortitude is a cardinal virtue as defined by natural law and upheld by its teaching, but I think it's time we all re familiarize ourselves with it because it, It is seriously lacking in this age we live in. It means courageously doing what is right even in, especially when it's hard to do and it might cost you something and it seems to me that this is obviously something that very few people were willing to do through this crisis.

It's why it was made far worse than it needed to be, and our Lord's words come to mind when I think about that. Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate that leads to destruction. And as the modern world approaches its next great crisis, due to the frailty of the principles that it now relies upon the fallacious principles, which is to say that we should expect there to be another crisis before long, consider being one of the few who will stand up for what is right and true even if you end up in the minority