Advise

Dear Father Sullivan,


Glad you liked the Teillhard book. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Since we are all not getting any younger, we presumably should get wiser. As an elder I feel I must give advise to a young and idealistic you. I hope this note serves you well to point out two errors in your thinking. In your Saturday, January 23 sermon, you took on social issues trying to bring our faith into the popular realm. But I need to point out that Catholic dogma (anti-abortion) is not equal to opinion (abolishing the death penalty). Your first error is confusing the two by calling capital punishment “murder.” Capital punishment, rather, is an expiation for the sin of murder carried out by the state for the sake of societal justice. Your opinion may be against an eye for an eye but mine compensates and triumphs the victim over the killer and his abominable sin.

Your second error ( I fear) is your forgetting that government is the problem not the solution to societal problems while believing the buzz words about social justice, such as we need to “redistribute wealth,” people deserve “health care” and another choice of your words, that businesses should be run not on “greed but service.” Although you did not say it, most people assume that such language means ‘government should make a law or provide the service. Let me clarify these three issues. Wealth is CREATED not redistributed. First, only freedom can allow for this to happen and, second, when it happens there will always be an unequal distribution of wealth. Third, prosperity “raises all boats.” Health care is already provided to everyone who needs it here in America though each person must take personal responsibility for his actions. It is not a RIGHT from the state. Lastly, the business of business is business. Greed is a deadly sin but the word has become the bogeyman against self-interest and financial success. Greed should never motivate profit or facilitate the bottom line but it is not a widespread phenomena. Government actually encouraged the ‘greed’ and speculation that led to the recent financial meltdown through favoritism and crony capitalism. Government, which is almost always controlled by special interests, aggrandizes power as it limits freedom in favor of the few over the many. Remember it was ‘government’ by the few that decided abortion was in the best interests of women. Creating wealth helps both employers and employees. If somehow the business or corporation (a legalized collection of individuals) falls into the red, it should FAIL. And what does a business on its knees then do? Get up and begin again. As Schumpeter rightly noted, capitalism is the process of ‘creative destruction.’ A business is in the business of SERVICE to its customers so service goes hand in hand with the accumulation of wealth.

The difference between government as a deadweight on most activities and private charities was emphasized in your remarks after Mass about how St. Colman collected $6,000 for Haiti relief to be funneled through CRS with no overhead cost. In contrast, the government program for relief, headed by Presidents Bush and Clinton, deducts $.28 of every dollar collected as overhead for processing through government hands.

Tom says I should “leave the poor man alone”( you), but is it not my Christian duty to correct errors and spread the good word? Enclosed is a sad bio of a woman killed in the Haitian earthquake. She truly was doing God’s work but she was not generating wealth. Helping the poor was her mission. The Catholic church in Brazil and private charity, not the government, facilitated her success. An oppressive government that disallowed individuals from pursuing their self-interests has caused the tragedy in the country of Haiti over the years. 400 revolutions have not helped. A free market, not billions in American and IMF dollars is the answer - a hand up not a hand out. One need only to look next door to the Dominican Republic as an alternative.

Respectfully,