The Late Pope Francis was a Legendary Critic of Capitalism; Pope Leo XIV has Big Shoes to Fill

A democratic socialist reflects on the legacy of Pope Francis

The world’s 1.4 billion Catholics received a new Pope on Thursday, May 8th. Only time will tell whether Pope Leo XIV, the first American ever to hold that position, will fill his predecessor’s shoes.

One thing is sure, though: Pope Francis left him with very, very big shoes to fill.

Take this speech he delivered in 2013, the same year he began his papacy.

"Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality,” Pope Francis said. “Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"

Lest there be any doubt that the late Pope was referring to capitalism, look at the next part of his speech.

"While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” Pope Francis said. “This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.”

Over the subsequent dozen years, the late Pope literally practiced what he preached. He regularly denounced the severe poverty caused by capitalism, and even called out capitalists as immoral in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si“ for causing climate change.

Perhaps the late Pope’s most eloquent statement about capitalism came in 2023, when he delivered his annual message for the World Day of the Poor.

“We are living in times that are not particularly sensitive to the needs of the poor,” Pope Francis wrote. “The pressure to adopt an affluent lifestyle increases, while the voices of those dwelling in poverty tend to go unheard.” In our quest to recreate for younger generations the same quality of life that their ancestors enjoyed, we neglect to pay attention to how the status quo is damaging the future.

“Virtual reality is overtaking real life, and increasingly the two worlds blend into one,” Pope Francis wrote. “The poor become a film clip that can affect us for a moment, yet when we encounter them in flesh and blood on our streets, we are annoyed and look the other way. Haste, by now the daily companion of our lives, prevents us from stopping to help care for others.” Instead of delegating charity to others, Pope Francis insisted that it is “the calling of every Christian is to become personally involved” in helping the poor.

None of these ideas are news to well-informed democratic socialists. When Pope Francis first ascended in 2013, I penned a tribute to his liberalism for my then-employer, PolicyMic. Rereading that piece today, I discovered more gems of wisdom from the late Pope, such as the aphoristic insight that “unbridled capitalism has taught the logic of profit at any cost, of giving in order to receive, of exploitation without looking at the person."

A few months later, he pointed out that advocates of trickle-down economics display "a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized workings of the prevailing economic system" while "the excluded are still waiting."

You don’t have to be a religious Catholic to appreciate the value of these observations. I’m a secular Jewish democratic socialist who is as likely to find wisdom in a Mel Brooks comedy as in the Tanakh. Yet at a time when fascists and dogmatic capitalists keep rising to power, I was always grateful that Pope Francis was there as a counterweight of reason and morality.

For this reason alone, he will be sorely missed. Pope Leo XIV’s legacy will no doubt be determined in large part by how he measures up to Pope Francis.

---

Back Seat Socialism

Column by Matthew Rozsa who is a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently he is writing a book for Beacon Press, "Neurosocialism," which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.

Twitter (X) @MatthewWRozsa