Vol. 30, No. 01
January 6, 2014
Has the Pope Gone Socialist?
Pope Francis denounced capitalism in his Evangelii Gaudium letter to Catholics worldwide, and his statement was a shocker to some laissez-faire economists. ...
Pope Francis’(“The Joy of the Gospel”) explicitly condemned free market economics with an epithet against “trickle-down” economics that caught global headlines, even though the Pope’s “apostolic exhortation” wasn’t really about economics. The following quote cheered leftists across the world:
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. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naĂŻve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.
“Trickle-down economics” has never been a term used by supporters of a free market to describe their views, but rather it has always been an insult deployed by opponents of free markets. The Popeʼs document, primarily about expanding the reach of the Catholic Church, drew choruses of amens from the Washington Post’s leftist Eugene Robinson and huzzahs from the far-left ThinkProgress website, while The Atlantic magazine cheered the “Vatican’s journey from anti-communism to anti-capitalism.”
The November 24 “apostolic exhortation” is a non-binding teaching document issued by the Pope, addressed to Catholics, not an “infallible” ex cathedra pronouncement. In practice, however, many Catholics will be persuaded by the mainstream media that they must follow this non-binding teaching.
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