[IBD editorial writer]

The pope is no idiot. But his words could easily be taken out of context by the region's socialist demagogues. We think he knows better. But advocating for government control does no one any good, not in these times.

[Savage Beast]

It’s not just the Pope. Many benevolent people can’t seem to comprehend the simple truth that Free Markets Are Best Way To End Poverty.

[A.A. Cunningham]

You and your colleagues would be well served to read the following:

QUOD APOSTOLICI MUNERIS

RERUM NOVARUM

[Adder]

Hey Pope-ey...how’d that increased government control work in, say...Italy? Or anyplace else its been tried including your home country.

Fact is, your way has not worked anywhere ever...thats “EVER”.

Stick with worrying about priests who can’t keep their hands out of altar boys pants....Free markets or capitalist markets have done more to lift humans out of poverty than any thing else. You should know it. heck, even the Chinese commies had to quit fighting the idea....

[Buckeye McFrog]

As much as I admire him, one must recognize that he comes from a country where they have never figured this out.

[nathanbedford]

I wrote following reply on May 16, when I first heard these comments of his Holiness the Pope.

Unchecked capitalism had created “a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny”, said the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

I fear his holiness has confused "unchecked capitalism" with corrupt socialism. It is the loss of the rule of law and the loss of equality of opportunity, not capitalism, which leads to inequality of wealth. Inequality in itself is not a bad thing but within limits a good thing. Without inequality there can be no incentive, no striving for improvement. Inequality is an indication of economic health, it reflects progress which must inevitably be uneven. Extreme inequality is almost always the result of government interference and corruption and it produces not just richer rich people but poorer poor people.

Inequality is not an evil if it means that the rich are richer while the poor are not poorer.

[Wurlitzer]

Not to slam the Pope by any means nor the late Mother Theresa, but all this help the poor crap does nothing but subsidize poverty. Subsidize something and you will always get more of it.

I can raise the blood pressure of many on the left and right by posing the question: “Who has helped more people escape from poverty, Mother Theresa or Bill Gates?”

While a very good and noble person, Mother Theresa still left the people in poverty. Bill Gates on the other hand created great wealth not only for himself and thousands of others but now has the infrastructure to help millions with medical aid and life improving technology.

The evil, greedy, and at times obnoxious, BG used capitalism to truly help the world.

A hand up is worth 1,000,000 hand outs.

[mjp]

he warned ambassadors about "the tyranny of money" and called for countries to impose more control over their economies to prevent "absolute autonomy" and foster the "common good."

The solution to poverty that free market economics offers is, the freedom of the individual.--i.e., laissez-faire capitalism--a system in which each individual pursues his own true interests and, at the same time, is necessarily led to promote the good of those with whom he deals, as the necessary condition of obtaining their voluntary cooperation. This is the engine for transforming poverty into prosperity. In its effectiveness in overcoming poverty, it surpasses the futile gestures of traditional, altruist/collectivist morality, which has been handed down unchanged in all essential since the Middle Ages.

[grumpygresh]

Any tendency to support “state control” is indeed dangerous and does expose a major flaw in the Pope’s thinking. In fact, I would argue that this is a moral flaw. The Pope should know better; not only did he live in statist Argentina, but he could learn from Pope JP2’s vigorous stand against communism and the Vatican’s resistance (at least where possible) to Nazism and Fascism.
Government control of the economy always leads to despotism; I defy the Pope to find an example to the contrary.

[betty boop]

Yikes!!! The "story" I heard consistently reported was that Cardinal Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio [Buenes Ares] was consistently at odds with the governmental powers-that-be [and their "private-sector" cronies, many of whom, as well-connected investors, either held public office at the time or had close access to it] in that sad (and exploited) country; AND that he was equally ticked off by the Jesuits — the would-be great, mindless modernizers of the Catholic Faith, in effect wishing to subject all holies-of-holies to the evaluation of the marketplace....

And I gather then sponsoring a universal public opinion poll, to be evaluated according to the highest standards of life experience rationally reflected; and mathematics and science. It seems possible that your "average citizen" (whatever that is) is not thinking about such problems, and is not the least bit interested in such problems.

Now that he has been elevated as Pope Francis, do we expect him to completely change his mind about what renovation and respiritualization of the Holy Church really means and requires, and why it is necessary at the present time?

Much has been said about Pope Francis as a "renovator." But with the political progressive Left, a "renovator" is someone who changes things.

For the Chrisitian, a "renovator" is someone who fulfills things — the Lord, Who, in doing such, makes all things new.

Methinks the progressive Left has been launching pre-emptive media attacks on Pope Francis, for they do already know that he is NOT going to (further) bless their "lavender seminaries." Let alone any moral theory that attempts to accommodate same, in the Name of the Lord. [That is to say, "'in the name of "truth'," as humanly-devised.]

Thank you so much for the post, IBD editorial writer!

[Mamzelle]

I dunno—this pope strikes me as darn peculiar.

[SeminoleCounty]

Wonder if the true free market folks still consider the EU “free market”? If so...they just flunked Free Market 101. And have no basis to criticize the Pope