Pope Francis criticized capitalism and free markets. That was about all—perhaps a few sentences in the Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). I’ve learned to never trust the media to translate the Pope.
Pope Francis also says in the exhortation that politicians should not pander to or prey on the poor for votes, that countries with high debt are doing a disservice to the poor, and that welfare programs are not the answer to the problem of poverty. He also calls for a greater emphasis on Catholic teaching on the principle of subsidiarity, which is absolutely opposed to all forms of "collectivism." So while Pope Francis is criticizing capitalism's negatives, he is certainly not endorsing socialism.
The exhortation needs to be taken as a whole, not cherry-picked apart depending on one's political viewpoint. In his exhortation, Pope Francis chides both liberals and conservatives, society in general, self-centeredness, secularism, totalitarianism, the Catholic Church, the division that exists among Christian Churches, the "silent complicity" that enables human trafficking, and even priests who deliver boring homilies.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/what_the_pope_really_said.html
He said that when our hearts are filled with desire for material things we have little room for God—I think I’ve heard that message every year about Christmas. He said that in this age, many worship money. But if reporters don’t go to church, this might be news to them.
He said he wanted everyone to have a personal encounter with Jesus and that Jesus was waiting with open arms.
“Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.”
“I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”.
Why didn’t the press report that?
And yes, he did name the “free market system” as not meeting the demands of the poor, and I disagree with him there, because of what we have to compare it with--socialism, communism, monarchies, and tribal/ethnic hatreds,which killed off about 100 million in the 20th century through democide (governments killing their own people, not war deaths). The conditions in Argentina, his home country, are very different than the United States (they are not built on English law as the U.S. is).
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