“When I give food to
the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call
me a Communist.”
- Archbishop Hélder Câmara, of Brazil -
"Is Pope Francis a Socialist?" My jaw dropped when I read the
title of the cover article in the December 13, 2013, on-line edition of Newsweek over my iPad. I thought to myself, this pope
is no more a socialist than is Barack Obama.
Let’s face it: in America, if you offer to turn on the light
switch for someone because the room is dark, conservatives will call you a
socialist.
Without a doubt, this first pope from Latin America (a child
of European immigrants) is as everyone points out, humble and self-effacing. He
has eschewed as the Newsweek article points out,
a lot of “the pomp and circumstances and the lavish trappings of his office in
the Vatican that helped conjure the awe and authority of popes down the
centuries.”
He took the name of a humble saint, Francis of Assisi. Wanting
to lead a simple life and lead by example, rather than live in the papal
apartments of the Apostolic Palace, he has opted to live in a modest guest
house. You will not see Pope Francis wearing the traditional garb of the pope
such as fur trimmed silk robes and red shoes, or dining on specially made
dinnerware engraved with a unique papal seal to mark his tenure. There will be no papal limousine; Pope Francis prefers to ride around in a Ford Focus.
The new pope has been a godsend for the Catholic brand.
For more than a decade, the church has been under siege for its
efforts to cover up child abuse by priests from all over the world and forced to pay
out billions of dollars to settle legal claims by victims. The numbers of
lapsed Catholics had been growing all over the world for decades. And, allegations
of money-laundering at the Vatican bank is only the latest problem the church
faces.
In steps Pope Francis, Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
Large numbers of Catholics think
highly of this pope, feel good about being Catholic once again, and many lapsed
Catholics are finding their way back to the church. Even non-Catholics – for
example, Christian, Muslim, Jews, Hindu, and yup, even atheists – admire and
are captivated by this pope.
While I think Pope Francis gestures of modesty and
compassion are genuine, and his criticism of capitalism, neo-liberalism, growing
inequality, and rampant materialism are on the mark, these things do not make him
a socialist?
As a matter of fact, the pope has rejected the socialist
label. So, what then is he? I don’t know. One thing I do know, however, is that Pope
Francis presides over an institution that is in bed with the capitalists system
he denounces.
The hype in the press about Pope Francis critique of the avariciousness
at the heart of the global capitalist system is built on a denial of reality
about the institution he leads and the role it plays in perpetuating this system.
The Pope is the CEO of one of the leading players in the global capitalist economic
system that he harshly criticizes.
The Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest and most successful
businesses in the world. Just how much is the church worth? No one knows. The
Catholic Church does not release figures on how much wealth it sits on or its
vast web of businesses and investments; hence, the scope of its global business
activities and its true value is actually unknown.
In the U.S. alone, nearly 100 million Americans identify
themselves as Catholic. With strong encouragement from the Vatican and most
importantly because Catholic immigrants often faced harsh discrimination during
the 19th and 20th centuries by White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASP), American
Catholics created a parallel
society in America. Today, there are more than 6,800 Catholic schools (5
percent of all schools); 630 hospitals (11 percent of the nation’s total); and
244 colleges and universities. A number of the nation’s leading law schools,
and top-ranked hospitals are Catholic.
The Economist
estimated last year that in 2010, annual spending by the Vatican and church
owned entities in the U.S. to be around $170 billion. No precise figures exist,
but The Economist
estimated that 57 percent of the church's spending in the U.S. went to Catholic
health care networks, 28 percent went to colleges, 6 percent to day-to-day
operations at local parishes and dioceses, and 2.7 percent to national
charities. According to Slate,
only 16 companies in the U.S. had more than $170 billion in total revenue (by
comparison, Apple had total revenues in 2010 of $157 billion).
The church is also the largest charitable organization in
the U.S., giving away, according to The Economist, through
Catholic Charities USA and its subsidiaries about $5 billion in aid to the poor
and serving more than 10 million people.
The church is of course a global institution, with extensive
operations in the U.S., Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. Again,
it’s really hard to nail down the real value of the church because the Catholic
Church is not a transparent institution. Moreover, from a legal standpoint, there
is no Catholic Church. The church is quite decentralized, with each diocese
separately incorporated and with no formal ties to the Church in Rome. Most of
the dioceses do not even share financial information with each other.
Taken as a whole, nonetheless, the assets
of the global church are vast, accumulated over centuries, and range from art, real
estate, church owned banks, academic institutions, breweries, vineyards, media
companies and hospitals, to income derived from stock holdings, foundations,
and bequests.
Several months ago, I watched a discussion on CNN about
Pope Francis on a show hosted by Christian Amanpour and was, almost literally, walloped
in the head by a comment comparing Pope Benedict to Pope Francis by Kean
University History Department Chair, Christopher M. Bellitto:
“Benedict had a certain charisma,
but it was the charisma of a university professor that you respected. Whereas
Francis is the uncle you run up to and hug. Francis is the kind of Pope we need
at this moment. Someone who is gentler. Someone who is more open. He is not
going to change doctrine, but he is going to preach it differently.”
The church is struggling to find its place in a new world
turned off by one scandal after another in the church. It has been losing
membership and support in an increasingly secular Europe and North America.
South America, Africa and Asia are places the church appears to be growing, and
where its fundamentally conservative message is being embraced.
Pope Francis is the pope that the church needs right now. He is a child of the global south and his history
and comments on issues such as poverty and inequality and the dehumanizing
impact of global capitalism will help connect the church to its growing base in
the non-white world. Pope Francis is helping to enhance the church's credibility
in those parts of the world in which it is growing, winning it more converts, and
restoring confidence in a scandal-plagued church of those who have strayed or
stayed away.
