There鱿鱼视频app something very traditional about papal warnings for politicians, said Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus.
鈥淭he popes have a long history of mixing it up with politicians. (Pope) Benedict (XVI) raised similar concerns about corruption, and of course (St. Pope) John Paul (II). So this is a Church call. But I think at this time the language is really important. We politicians need to step up our game.鈥�
Francis, who has made migrants and refugees a special cause, highlights the dangers bad politics create for migrants in his Dec. 8 letter intended to promote the Jan. 1 World Day of Peace in parishes and religious communities around the world.
鈥淧olitical addresses that tend to blame every evil on migrants and to deprive the poor of hope are unacceptable,鈥� Pope Francis writes.
He pulls no punches on the subject of political vices.
鈥淧olitics also has its share of vices,鈥� he writes. 鈥淲e think of corruption in its varied forms; the misappropriation of public resources, the exploitation of individuals, the denial of rights, the flouting of community rules, dishonest gain, the justification of power by force or the arbitrary appeal to raison d鈥檈tat and the refusal to relinquish power. To which we can add xenophobia, racism, lack of concern for the natural environment, the plundering of natural resources for the sake of quick profit and contempt for those forced into exile.鈥�
The Pope鱿鱼视频app warnings against xenophobia, corruption and demagoguery may well apply to Canadian politics, Angus said. He also warns that the fall 2019 federal election 鈥渕ay be the ugliest election that we鈥檝e ever had.鈥�
鈥淲e are not immune by any stretch,鈥� Angus said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not better than Americans or anyone else. That鱿鱼视频app a really dangerous thing to think.
鈥淲e see a rise of politics where you play to your base and the hell with everyone else. That鱿鱼视频app not going to lead us to a better world.鈥�
Angus, who functions as ethics critic for the NDP in Ottawa, is worried by politicians who label people exercising their legal right to apply for asylum 鈥渋llegal immigrants鈥� and 鈥渜ueue jumpers.鈥�
鈥淚n terms of the xenophobia that we will see in 2019, we鈥檝e just got to call it out,鈥� Angus said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檝e got to call it out when we see it. It鱿鱼视频app insidious.鈥�
Former Progressive Conservative Senator Douglas Roche echoed that sentiment in an e-mail to The Catholic Register.
鈥淲e will not achieve peace if we blame problems on migrants,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淎ll political parties in Canada should adopt policies that welcome the dispossessed and help them to fit into Canadian life, which is thereby strengthened and enhanced.鈥�
Roche said he welcomed the Pope鱿鱼视频app 鈥減rofound message鈥� that politicians are essential to building human community.
鈥淭his fundamental purpose of politics is in danger of being lost today as people rebel against the failure of political systems to create a socially just order,鈥� Roche said.
Angus has served on parliamentary committees looking at manipulation of social media for political purposes.
鈥淲hen we look around the world, we鈥檙e seeing politics taking some really dark turns that we haven鈥檛 seen since the 1930s,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e really woken up to the ability of dark operators to interfere with civil discourse because everything is done through Facebook.鈥�