COVID shows need for 'universal basic wage,' pope says

Pope Francis weighed in recently on the economic impact of COVID-19, saying the pandemic underscored the need for a “universal basic wage” to protect the world’s laborers and their families.

Addressing low wage-earners, the pope said they were facing a “time of danger.”

“The problems that afflict everyone hit you twice as hard. Many of you live day to day, without any type of legal safeguards,” he said. Without a guaranteed salary, “the quarantines are for you are unsustainable.”

“Perhaps the time has come to consider a universal basic wage that acknowledges and dignifies the essential work you perform, capable of guaranteeing the ideal of no worker without rights,” he said.

The suggestion came in a letter April 12 to the World Meeting of Popular Movements. It was a reminder that this pope views the global economy as problematic in the extreme – an system that he says is centered largely on “idolatry of money” and excessive consumerism.

“Our civilization, so competitive and individualistic, with its frenetic pace of production and consumption, its excessive luxuries and disproportionate profits for the few, needs to slow down, take stock and renew itself,” the pope said in his letter.

The economic disparities are being aggravated during the current pandemic, he said.

“If the struggle against COVID is a war, then you are the invisible army that is fighting in the most dangerous trenches,” he said.

Waiting out the storm

Cardinal Mueller's "manifesto"

Saying church leaders have allowed the spread of “doctrinal confusion,” German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller has published a “manifesto of faith” that reasserts traditional church teaching on several issues, including a ban on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

Although Mueller does not specifically mention Pope Francis, the text is clearly aimed at the more flexible stance taken by the pope and some progressive bishops. Two years ago, Mueller was let go by Francis as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The document was issued in multiple languages through conservative Catholic media, which have themselves been critical of the pope, saying his teachings and pronouncements on pastoral mercy have left Catholics confused. Mueller said he had taken the step at the request of “many” bishops, priests, religious and lay people.

On the question of Communion for divorced Catholics, Mueller said that “civilly remarried divorcees, whose sacramental marriage exists before God, as well as those Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic faith and the church, just as all who are not properly disposed, cannot receive the Holy Eucharist fruitfully because it does not bring them to salvation. To point this out corresponds to the spiritual works of mercy.”

The cardinal said this clearly follows from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states: “Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of reconciliation before coming to Communion.”

In his post-synodal document “Amoris Laetitia” in 2016, Pope Francis appeared to open the door to reception of Communion by Catholics who have divorced and civilly remarried, through pastoral accompaniment on a case-by-case basis.

Cardinal Mueller said the task of the church’s teaching authority is to “preserve God’s people from deviations and defections” so they can profess the faith without error.

Mueller’s text is essentially a string of citations of the Catechism, published in 1992 as a way to firm up doctrinal understanding among Catholics. (In contrast, it quotes from the Gospel only a handful of times.)

The remarkable thing is not the content, but the fact that a formerly high-ranking Vatican cardinal has allowed himself to be used by a conservative faction in opposition to a reigning pope. The implicit accusation is that when it comes to defense of doctrine, Mueller is filling a leadership void left by Pope Francis.