On Friday, September 25 the Pope spoke to the United Nations
in New York. Throughout the Pope’s speech there were many examples of Liberal
ideals. The Pope goes into many specific examples of how the UN can be most
influential in the best way, with a liberal tone throughout the speech.
Liberals believe that states can work together in order to have be mutually beneficial,
the economy of states has much importance, and that international institutions can
maintain peace and cooperation. All of these beliefs were included in the Pope’s
speech and therefore it is reasonable to say that the Pope is a Liberal. When
the Pope spoke it was also the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations.
The Pope acknowledged this and stated that it is one of the most “important
common achievements”. The Pope then goes on to state that he believes without
international intervention mankind would not be able to survive. The belief
that an international institution that can maintain peace and cause good is a
very Liberal belief.
After recognizing the importance of maintaining peace, the
Pope moves on to talk about the importance of the economy of the states. He
asks that The International Financial Agencies to work hard to ensure positive
economic growth of developing countries. He also asked that they work to stop
the lending systems that only cause more poverty in countries. This interest in
economic well-being is another examples of the Pope’s liberal beliefs.
Finally, the Pope addresses the importance of all states
working together in order to create a better world for anyone. He states that no
country or individual should believe that they have the right to take away the
rights of anyone else. Even if a country has absolute power this does not give
them the right to take away the rights of a country with less power. He
stresses that the “distribution of power”, which includes all political, economic,
and technological actions, is necessary in order to maintain peace and a
judicial system that can hold all people accountable of their actions.
The Pope’s Liberal international policy makes sense with the
zeitgeist of today. As the world becomes more globalized it is necessary for
there to be an institution that can govern international affairs. These international
affairs include all economic issues and justice in general, which makes it
liberal. Even the idea of states working together at all is a very liberal
concept and the fact that it is being taken so seriously and is being spoken
about by such an influential person really shows that the world is moving in a
very liberal direction.
I like your take on how what the Pope is talking about takes on the qualities of a liberal, but how would you classify the Pope as a person (i.e. his position of power/influence). I almost see his role having the qualities of a constructivist due to the fact that the Pope represents an identity rather than a state. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the Pope and a constructivist entity versus his Liberal speech.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that the Pope is a representative of a certain identity, but just like presidents of the United States, the views and ideas of each one differ. Especially in this case, Pope Francis has made a lot of changes.
DeleteRyan,
ReplyDeleteI think that the arguments you make about the Pope as a liberal are very valid. I find it really interesting that you chose to write about the Pope, because while he is clearly a very influential and powerful figure in the Catholic Church, I never thought about the Pope as a liberal, realist, constructivist, etc. I solely thought of him as this religious figure-head, not as a political figure, and others seem to agree in that sense. After the pope’s speech in New York, a few news commentators expressed that they didn’t believe that it was the Pope’s place to talk about political issues, and that he should solely be talking about religion. I don’t agree with these commentators, I think that he is entitled to have his own beliefs and ideas and he should be able to freely publicize them, however, I just found it interesting that your post talks about the Pope’s political beliefs and ideas, and how progressive he is, when there are people saying that he should not be publicizing these beliefs, an idea (that he should not be publicizing his beliefs) that to me, seems very much out-dated.
Thank you for bringing this topic up. I agree that the pope should have the right to speak about politics in that serious of a setting because for millions of people he is the most influential person on the earth and what he had to say in my opinion were all objective and agreeable points.
DeleteHi, Ryan, great post! I didn’t have the chance to watch or read the Pope’s speech which you’re talking about, but I am familiar with his stances on institutions, peace, economy, and human rights. I agree with your classification of his attitudes on these issues as Liberal; environmentalism is another aspect of Liberalism that I know the Pope is a big proponent of. Liberalism takes into account the consequences of environmental degradation, or in other words how the well-being of the environment affects the trade and thus the relationships of states. The Pope also recognizes the negativity of a deteriorating environment and has spoken on several occasions (although not in the U.N. speech, I believe) about the importance of being good stewards of the environment. There is the difference: the Pope talks about the importance of the environment in terms of moral imperatives and morality, while states talk about environment in terms of eventual gains or losses. The same is true of peace, the economy, and human rights – the Pope speaks about these issues in the context of his moral office. States define the importance of these issues in the context of political existence. This reveals the tension between Church and State, a tension of which Liberalism itself is wary. Liberalism originally promoted the separation of Church and State, saying that rationality and reason – not morality or religiosity – should rule politics. Therefore, the Pope doesn’t really have a place in Liberalism to be talking about political issues. What is your opinion? Do you think the moral and the political spheres have to be separate and distinct or do you think they should interact as long as neither one dominates the other?
ReplyDeleteRyan,
ReplyDeleteNice post. I agree with you in that it's really cool to see an influential person like the Pope care so much about the world working together. States definitely need to follow this mindset; I think over the past few decades, states have started to work together more, which is great. In your conclusion, you say how the world is becoming more globalized which is interesting. Your mentioning of globalization started to get me to think - is globalization good? I most certainly think it is, but there are those people out there who think globalization is bad for the world. I think you could have expanded on your conclusion just a bit more and provided more examples with how the world is becoming more liberal and how globalization leads to a liberal world. This brings up an interesting question: How seriously is the idea of states working together being taken? While the Pope speaks strongly about this, what do other world leaders think? Are nations going to start to work together even more? It's interesting to think about it. I think nations are going to work together more to ensure everyone is safe and successful. That being said, there's no utopia in the world. We just have to work as hard as we can to strive towards world peace. To have leaders such as the Pope back this ideal is a significant step forward.
Great job.