Urbi et Greedy

Every Christmas, the Pontiff addresses the world with the now-traditional Urbi et Orbi. He reads out a litany of global transgressions and asks his Lord and Savior to pardon those who have done wrong. This year was no exception. As is usual of a Pope, he focused his attention on the tragic and grizzly socio-political struggles of Zimbabwe, Darfur, Israel and Palestine, Iraq and Somalia amongst many others. While this hasn't helped much in the past, perhaps this is the year. One can only hope.

In a rather cunning segue, the Pope extended his prayer from paucity to excess:

Wherever the dignity and rights of the human person are trampled upon; wherever the selfishness of individuals and groups prevails over the common good; wherever fratricidal hatred and the exploitation of man by man risk being taken for granted; wherever internecine conflicts divide ethnic and social groups and disrupt peaceful coexistence; wherever terrorism continues to strike; wherever the basics needed for survival are lacking; wherever an increasingly uncertain future is regarded with apprehension, even in affluent nations: in each of these places may the Light of Christmas shine forth and encourage all people to do their part in a spirit of authentic solidarity. If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.

I'm quite certain that "fratricidal hatred and the exploitation of man by man risk being taken for granted" isn't quite what he meant. Then, again, this is the Church that took exploitation of boy by man for granted.

Even more awkward is his call for the Light of Christmas (presumbly the aurora borealis, made famous by Briggs' The Snowman) to shine on "[w]herever the dignity and rights of the human person are trampled upon." This comes just days after the Vatican opposed a UN draft declaration on gay rights. Their ambassador was quoted in a French newspaper as saying that such a proposal was “sad and outrageous” and represented the kind of “modern savagery that will dismantle our society from the inside out.” To be fair, one can't accuse the Papacy of trampling on gay rights if they don't have any.

Woven in that message, too, is an anti-Gordon Gekko-esque screed against greed. It's rather humorous that one believer in an "invisible hand" stands so much in opposition to another:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.

All the same, railing against greed and self-interest is as popular as ever, if not more so. It's a good thing, then, that the Holy Father didn't pimp himself up for the event.