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Francis in the Land of Savage Capitalism

12:01 AM, Sep 12, 2015 • By IRWIN M. STELZER
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In eleven days the much-travelled Pope Francis will set foot on American soil for the first time: Unlike his two immediate predecessors, he did not visit this country before rising to the papacy. His baggage will include the mind-set typical of Latin American anti-U.S. populists, in his case the Argentine variety, numerous vitriolic attacks on our economic system, and support for many of the positions being taken by the Democrats’ left wing. And he will be unpacking that baggage before a joint session of Congress, the UN, a school in East Harlem (NYC), a prison, and a variety of other groups, as well as before television cameras covering his visit on channels devoted to it on a 24/7 schedule.

Pope Francis

There are some 70 million Catholics here in America, about 25 percent of them foreign-born, most Hispanic. That overstates their electoral significance, since none of the 13 states in which Catholics represent 30 percent or more of the population are swing states: most are reliably Democratic, a few equally reliable Republican. Still, in key swing states such as Florida (26 percent), and Ohio and Colorado (24 percent each), Catholics far outweigh the importance of Jews (3.3 percent, 1.3 percent and 2 percent, respectively), whose influence in elections is the stuff of which some folks’ nightmares are made. So they matter. And the Pope’s visit comes at a time when the battles for both parties’ presidential nominations are well under way, and involve economic and social issues to which he attaches great importance.

Which brings us to the contents of his baggage. Pope Francis, or the more egalitarian “Bishop of Rome,” as he prefers to be called, is unambiguously opposed to the American system of “savage capitalism”. He has famously quoted a fourth century Doctor of the Church, St. Basil of Caesarea, who called money “the devil’s dung”, has railed against the “anonymous influences of mammon” and a “new colonialism” that includes “free trade treaties … [and] imposition of austerity,” and stated a preference for “cooperatives.” Throw in Francis’ views that we are witnessing “a disturbing warming of the climatic system … due to the great concentration of greenhouse gasses”, and that “there is an urgent need of a true world political authority”, and you have positions that it will take more than a spoonful of the Pontiff’s charm to make go down the throats of many Americans. Including rich, philanthropic Catholics. Politico reports that donors such as billionaire Ken Langone, working to raise $180 million for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, are so upset by the Pope’s attacks on capitalism, and on the rich, that they might just stop giving to the Church.

President Obama can live with the Pope’s attack on free trade deals. He believes that he can get the two now being negotiated through the Republican congress, over the opposition of most of his own party. But the President relishes papal support for the tough regulatory measures he will be carrying to Paris in December as part of his plan to reduce CO2 emissions, counting on what Churchill called the Pope’s “invisible legions” to pressure their governments to follow the American delegation’s lead.

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