Ed Krayewski on Pope Francis’ Condemnation of “Unfettered” Capitalism

In the Evangelii Gaudium, the
first apostolic exhortation of his papacy, Pope Francis focused on
the church’s mission of evangelization, urging clergy and the laity
to “recover the original freshness of the Gospel.” In the new
pope’s missionary church, the “doors should always be open,” he
wrote. The 84-page document spanned Catholic topics from social
justice to interfaith dialogue, but Francis’ criticisms of free
markets, hardly new ground for him or for the Catholic
Church, opened the door for supporters of aggressive market
intervention by government to claim the pope as their own. But such
attempts, writes Ed Krayewski, rely on decontextualizing Pope
Francis’ words, which are inexorably intertwined with his religious
worldview, one that would benefit from and be strengthened by an
embrace of free market principles.

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