Pope Benedict has condemned what he referred to as “unregulated capitalism” as it “contributes to world tension”.  The Pope spoke at Mass in the Vatican and then greeted worshippers outside St Peter’s Basilica.  He said he deplores “hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor”.  He continued, those “hotbeds grew out of the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism.”  He also blamed “various forms of terrorism and crime”.  There are a couple of things disturbing about his speech.  First, there has always been huge gaps of inequality between rich and poor.  Inequality dates back to the very beginning of the Church and the Vatican itself.  Anyone who’s ever visited the Vatican can see that inequality with their own eyes.  Of course in this instance, “God wanted it that way”.  What’s also disturbing about the message, is the fact that the Catholic Church is the largest corporation on the face of the earth.  Nothing is more deplorable than blatant hypocrisy.  If the church is so concerned about the poor, why doesn’t it simply sell some of its artwork and jewels.  If it were to do that, it could feed all the people in the third world for many, many years.  There are those that would argue that those artifacts are priceless and can’t therefore be sold.  That’s nonsense.  The very establishment of the Vatican goes against the teaching of any monotheistic deity.  The Vatican is built on a 108 Acre parcel of land in Rome.  It was given to Pope Miltiades in 313AD by Constantine, who was more concerned with political power than establishing the Roman Catholic Church.  “Having a unified church/state became essential to maintaining the Empire; hence, the creation of the universal Roman religion, i.e., the Roman Catholic Church.”  In other words, Christians at the time advocated the overthrow of the Roman government and placating the Church by giving it a parcel of land and establishing the Church in Rome, would ensure its survival.  One need not go in to an entire history to demonstrate all the ways in which this religious body has sinned.  It’s enough to say that becoming involved in world politics without self-examination has no merit or validity.  Of course blame is always an effective way of deflecting criticism.