Benedict; Ex German Hitler Youth Now the Holy Vatican Beancounter

Responding to Pope Benedict's plan to achieve "social justice" through higher taxes and more government intervention, the Holy Father is reminded of the difference between voluntary charity and coercive income redistribution, moral argument against the notion that compassion can be measured by spending someone else's money:

There's a more fundamental question that I'd put to the pope: Should the Roman Catholic Church support the welfare state? Or, put more plainly, should the church support the use of the coercive powers of government to enable one person to live at the expense of another? Put even more plainly, should the church support the government's taking the property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn't belong? When such an act is done privately, we call it theft…The pope might say that the welfare state reflects the will of the people. Would that mean the church interprets God's commandment to Moses "Thou shalt not steal" as not an absolute, but as "Thou shalt not steal unless you got a majority vote in parliament or congress"?...I share Pope Benedict's desire to assist our fellow man in need. But I believe that reaching into one's own pocket to do so is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into another's pocket to assist one's fellow man in need is despicable and worthy of condemnation.