Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The Economic Reeducation of Pope Francis?
The Economic Reeducation of Pope Francis?
Oct 17, 2026 4:19 AM

It may be too early to tell, says Kishore Jayabalan in this week’s Acton Commentary, but has Francis has learned something about economics from his American critics?

Can we dare to say that Francis has learned something about economics from his American critics? Maybe so. Compare what he said in Latin America about the “idolatry of money” and the “dung of the devil” to his speech in Congress about the “creation and distribution of wealth” and the “spirit of enterprise.” On his return flight from Paraguay, the pope had said he needed to study the American criticisms of his economic statements and admitted he was “allergic to economics.” He knows that we live in an individualistic age but shouldn’t be nostalgic or romantic about the past. Whatever happened in the pope’s thinking about economics, it was a step in the right direction.

The full text of the essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here. , but has Francis has learned something about economics from his American critics?

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Longing For The Good Old Days Of The Great Depression
. Sure, times were tough, but at least people were more sensitive and caring. And our government was much better at taking care of people. Not like now when people are losing government hand-outs left and right. No, the days of the Great Depression were good. There was a time in our history when the poor and unemployed experienced a passionate government. During the Great Depression the federal government not only provided safety nets in the form of relief, food...
Christ’s Preferential Option for Tax Collectors
During the 20th century, the option for the poor or the preferential option for the poor was articulated as one of the basic principles of Catholic social teaching. For example, in Octogesima Adveniens (1971), Pope Paul VI writes: In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the most fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods generously at the...
Religion: Fighting For Tolerance Or Existence?
I am not concerned how my meat is butchered. I prefer my meat to be raised organically, and I like it cooked. Other than that, I’m not too fussy, but I don’t have to be. My religious faith doesn’t have anything to say about how meat is butchered. If a person is Jewish or Muslim, however, this is a big deal. And many Jews and Muslims take it as seriously as I take the tenets of my faith. And while...
Bridging Income Inequality: The Subsidiarity Of Friendship
There is a lot of talk about “closing the gap” and ing e inequality.” Some of it is pure socialism: Redistribute! Redistribute! Others look for ways to create jobs and help people create new financial opportunities for themselves. But what about the simple gift of friendship? At The American Conservative, Gracy Olmstead suggests that friendship can bridge e gaps, and creates safety nets for people in ways government and even private agencies cannot. We all have close friends and family...
Samuel Gregg on Just Money
“If a society regards governmental manipulation of money as the antidote to economic challenges,” writes Acton research director Samuel Gregg at Public Discourse, “a type of poison will work its way through the body politic, undermining justice and mon good.” Money: it’s on everyone’s mind sometimes. In recent years, however, many have suggested there are some fundamental problems with the way money presently functions in our economies. No one is seriously denying money’s unique ability to serve simultaneously as a...
Is American Innovation Fading?
In a fascinating essay in Mosaic, Charles Murray examines the spirit of innovation in America. He asks, As against pivotal moments in the story of human plishment, does today’s America, for instance, look more like Britain blooming at the end of the 18th century or like France fading at the end of the 19th century? If the latter, are there idiosyncratic features of the American situation that can override what seem to be longer-run tendencies? The author of Human plishment:...
The Hegemonic Misandry Continues: ADHD
Cultural progressives often talk about something called “hegemonic masculinity.” By this progressives and feminists mean the standards we use to determine what an ideal man is in a particular culture. Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson, in The Gendered Society Reader, describe American hegemonic masculinity this way: In an important sense there is only plete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of plexion, weight, and height, and a recent...
Oikonomia: A Holistic Theology of Work in One Flowchart
The following es from “Theology That Works,” a 60-page manifesto on discipleship and economic work written by Greg Forster and published by the Oikonomia Network. Given our tendency to veer too far in either direction (stewardship or economics), and to confine our Christian duties to this or that sphere of life, the diagram is particularly helpful in demonstrating the overall interconnectedness of things. As Forster explains: In most churches today, stewardship only means giving and volunteering at church. But in...
When Caesar Meets Peter
Although religion and politics are not supposed to be discussed in pany, they are nearly impossible to ignore. We try to do so in order to avoid heated, never-ending arguments, preferring to “agree to disagree” on the most contentious ones. It’s a mark of Lockean tolerance, but there are only so many conversations one can have about the weather and the latest hit movie before more interesting and more important subjects break through our attempts to suppress them. This is...
Audio: Dennis Miller Declares ‘Bobby Sirico’ to be a ‘Good Cat’; Also Talks PovertyCure
Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico joins host Dennis Miller on The Dennis Miller Show to discuss President Obama’s recent visit in Rome with Pope Francis, and the differences between the current president’s relationship with the Roman Pontiff and that of Reagan and Pope John Paul II. They also discuss the PovertyCure initiative, after which Dennis declares “Bobby Sirico” to be a “good cat,” which is high praise ing from the former host of SNL’s Weekend Update. The audio...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved