re: #10 lawhawk

Pope Francis isn’t breaking new ground here. He’s reaffirming the message that people come first, and that poverty is something that must be overcome, and until that can happen, people must do more to help those less fortunate.

He’s very shrewdly rebranding the Catholic church, too.

By shifting his public focus away from abortion, gays, and women to more universal issues of poverty, income inequality and the problems of unfettered capitalism he’s getting a whole lot of attention. People shouldn’t forget, however, that he’s still the Pope, which means that theologically, he’s just as conservative as Benedict and JPII were. He’s not going to change any of the church doctrine or do anything drastic. He’s just emphasizing social justice over social conservative policy.

It’s hilarious watching my conservative friends calling the Pope an economic illiterate that will consign billions to abject poverty. You know, because there’s no poverty now.