Pope's comments on capitalism are worth considering

Friday, Aug. 07, 2015

Some American politicians and pundits reacted harshly to Pope Francis’ comments about unfettered capitalism during his recent trip to South America. In all the rhetoric following the pontiff’s comments, Catholics may have missed his powerful, inspiring call to action.

What, for example, could we take from his comments in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, where he asked, “Do we realize that something is wrong in a world where there are so many farmworkers without land, so many families without a home, so many laborers without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected?” Do we disagree with him on this? Are we, Catholics who profess a mission of care for the poor and vulnerable, concerned about homelessness and human trafficking and destruction of farmland? Each of these issues has political components, but each also involves significant moral questions. Questions people of faith must raise.

Pope Francis asks, “Do we realize that something is wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and acts of fratricidal violence are taking place on our very doorstep?” Do we Americans care about our brothers shooting each other in movie theaters and on street corners? Do we care that much of the world is at war and we contribute to the strife of other countries? Would we like to see peace? Are we willing to work for it? Do we see how our Catholic faith requires that we do so?

What about our market economy? While many have leapt to the defense of capitalism, Pope Francis asks some important questions on this front: “Do we realize that that system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or destruction of nature?” Are we who proclaim our beliefs in the dignity and sanctity of life willing to continue to sit back while prisons are privatized and public water systems sold to for-profit companies, despite the ever-growing body of evidence that each of these destroys human dignity? 

Pope Francis is very clear that he is not proposing one economic system over another. Rather, he is asking for three simple principles to guide any economic system. First, he asserts, as prior popes and our Catechism have done, that any economic system must serve the people, not the other way around. This means that money should not rule. Rather, the economy should be structured in a way that guarantees each individual “the three L’s of land, lodging, and labor  ... but also access to education, health care, new technologies, artistic and cultural manifestations, communications, sports and recreation.”  In short, each of us should be able to live a full life, work with equal rights, and retire in dignity.

The second principle is to promote peace and justice by respecting the sovereignty of other people. By this, the pope asks those with greater power to respect other cultures, languages, social processes and religious traditions. For corporations, this means not subjecting the economies of a poorer country to even greater disparities in the name of profits. In other words, poorer countries do not exist for the sole purpose of providing raw materials or cheap labor for wealthier nations, or cheap products for consumers. 

Finally, Pope Francis asks that economic systems protect our common home – earth. This is beautifully and more fully explored in “Laudato si’,” but Pope Francis’ continual reference to care of creation is a reminder to us all that protecting our natural and human ecology is an integral part of all of our activities, not a separate concern to leave on a back burner. 

It would be very easy for each of us to toss aside Pope Francis’ words by reframing the questions he raises in political terms, but if we read what he is saying, rather than the heavily skewed news reports, we will find his call irresistible. What he says, in his own words, is that “working for just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater; it is a commandment.”