By JIM YARDLEY and BINYAMIN APPELBAUM, JULY 11, 2015
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay — His speeches can blend biblical fury with apocalyptic doom. Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.”
Having returned to his native Latin America, Francis has renewed his left-leaning critiques on the inequalities of capitalism, describing it as an underlying cause of global injustice, and a prime cause of climate change. Francis escalated that line last week when he made a historic apology for the crimes of the Roman Catholic Church during the period of Spanish colonialism — even as he called for a global movement against a “new colonialism” rooted in an inequitable economic order.
The Argentine pope seemed to be asking for a social revolution.
“This is not theology as usual; this is him shouting from the mountaintop,” said Stephen F. Schneck, the director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic studies at Catholic University of America in Washington.
The last pope who so boldly placed himself at the center of the global moment was John Paul II, who during the 1980s pushed the church to confront what many saw as the challenge of that era, communism. John Paul II’s anti-Communist messaging dovetailed with the agenda of political conservatives eager for a tougher line against the Soviets and, in turn, aligned part of the church hierarchy with the political right.
Francis has defined the economic challenge of this era as the failure of global capitalism to create fairness, equity and dignified livelihoods for the poor — a social and religious agenda that coincides with a resurgence of the leftist thinking marginalized in the days of John Paul II. Francis’ increasingly sharp critique comes as much of humanity has never been so wealthy or well fed — yet rising inequality and repeated financial crises have unsettled voters, policy makers and economists.
Hey Pope, how about talking of the love of God as revealed in His Son? World economics must've been a course at Jesuit seminary? The new, improved Christianity can accompany the new improved world nuclear deal with Iran. TM
******* The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil ... but by those who watch them and do nothing. -- Albert Einstein
Francis has a problem differentiating global crony capitalism aka fascism from free markets. He must have studied science under Pope Urban VIII.
He should be so concerned about the Christians being slaughtered in the Middle East and elsewhere, or the Christians in the US being being denied freedom of religion as he is about Gaia and state sponsored redistribution of wealth.
Pope Francis and Obama are cut from the same cloth.