I am not Catholic, but long live Pope Francis. Alleluia! Alleluia! I think he has been reading my book. Did you read about his recent statements. Check out this report from News Americas:
His strong condemnation of income inequality and free markets shows that a lot has changed since the cold war.
Pope Francis is once again shaking things up in the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, he issued his first “apostolic exhortation,” declaring a new enemy for the Catholic Church: modern capitalism. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” he wrote. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
He couldn't be much clearer. The pope has taken a firm political stance against right-leaning, pro-free market economic policies, and his condemnation appears to be largely pointed at Europe and the United States. His explicit reference to “trickle-down” economic policies—the hallmark of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and their political successors—is just the beginning: Throughout 224 pages on the future of the Church, he condemns income inequality, “the culture of prosperity,” and “a financial system which rules rather than serves.”
Taken in the context of the last half-century of Roman Catholicism, this is a radical move. Fifty years ago, around the time of the Second Vatican Council, Church leaders quietly declared a very different economic enemy: communism. But Pope Francis’s communitarian, populist message shows just how far the Church has shifted in five decades—and how thoroughly capitalism has displaced communism as a monolithic political philosophy.
I hope Obama does not use a couple of his drones to lob some missiles at the Vatican.
Comments
I too, have been fascinated by this new pope's compassion and concern about people, about justice and equity, but not because I am naive enough to believe that the ruling elite will allow the implementation of his "apostolic exhortations". They will not.
In fact, I wonder if these actions might trigger the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Revelation about the destruction of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false worship. Chapter 17 & 18 paint a conflicted picture because on the one hand the kings of the earth attack and destroy her compelled to do by God and in Chapter 18 they are saddened by their actions.
Of well, many moving parts to the climax of this stage play. Stay tuned. Shalom.