pope francis has been brushing up on his english ahead of his arrival in washington in september, and tickets to his u.s. events are already a hot commodity. but anyone expecting his message to be simply one of mercy and love could be in for a distinct surprise.









in his speech to a joint meeting of congress, the pope of the poor could well deliver a harsh message for the world<u+2019>s richest nation. for all the genuine warmth of his smile, his track record suggests he sees it as his job not just to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable. and however delicately he fine-tunes his language, the hard fact is that he believes the united states is as much a part of the problem as the solution.









for more than a century, popes have made nuanced criticisms of the free-market capitalism that drives the american dream. but pope francis, with an unprecedented vigor, is locking horns with much that washington and wall street hold dear. why does he take such a hard line?









in the two-plus years since his election, he has enchanted and bewildered the world in equal measure with his compassion and his contradictions. but he has also proved himself a wily and sophisticated politician. understanding this side of francis<u+2014>capable of crafty maneuvering, unafraid of confrontation, ready to seek out unlikely allies<u+2014>is essential for understanding the complicated effect he is having on american politics.









the pope born in argentina as jorge mario bergoglio has been called both a marxist and a reactionary. but unpack the long biography of this 78-year-old cleric, and a more complex and intriguing reality emerges. francis has never embraced one particular political ideology, though he has been comfortable around people who have. his first boss, the woman who ran the buenos aires chemistry laboratory where he worked, was a communist whose diligence and integrity he greatly admired. <u+201c>marxist ideology is wrong,<u+201d> the pope said in 2013, <u+201c>but in my life i have known many marxists who are good people, so i don<u+2019>t feel offended.<u+201d>









what has shaped francis, instead, is his lived experience. born into an italian immigrant family, he has a long-standing bias toward the underdog and those who must struggle to survive. the most formative part of his priestly life was the 19 years he spent among the very poorest in the shantytowns of buenos aires, where he was known as the <u+201c>bishop of the slums.<u+201d>









but there is another key to understanding the pope<u+2019>s worldview. his predecessor, pope benedict xvi, was above all a theologian. pope john paul ii, before that, was originally an actor and a philosopher. but francis trained as a scientist. one of his adages is: <u+201c>facts are more important than ideas.<u+201d> the intersection of these two threads in francis<u+2019> life<u+2014>his sympathy for the poor and his insistence that reality comes before theory<u+2014>help account for how the united states and its unrestrained capitalism have come into the papal crosshairs.









like many latin americans, pope francis is ambivalent toward america. <u+201c>he combines both a sense of respect and a feeling of resentment at the economic and cultural dominance of his bigger neighbor,<u+201d> one senior member of the roman curia told me. as a young man, bergoglio was schooled in the politics of argentine president juan domingo per<u+00f3>n. <u+201c>peronism<u+201d> was a curious alliance of labor unions, the army and the church. it sought what per<u+00f3>n called a <u+201c>third position<u+201d> between communism and capitalism. it favored authoritarian nationalism and looked to the state rather than the market for solutions; francis was much influenced by the latter.









in his later years, as archbishop of buenos aires, francis saw firsthand the devastation wrought upon ordinary people by economic policies originating in washington. during argentina<u+2019>s 2001 economic crisis, when half the population was plunged into poverty, the international monetary fund, world bank and u.s. treasury agreed to policies that imposed severe austerity on argentina<u+2019>s lower class. six years later, francis took the leading role in shaping the pro-poor, anti-colonial spirit of the latin american church articulated by the region<u+2019>s bishops at their seminal meeting in aparecida, brazil.









pope francis is no knee-jerk liberal. he has held the traditional catholic line on issues like abortion, gay marriage and even contraception, yet he has radically shifted the focus of the catholic church away from sexual ethics onto the morality of money.









that became clear in the eco-encyclical he released this year, laudato si. to the horror of climate skeptics, it endorsed the worldwide scientific consensus that global warming is largely human-created. it was ironic that, before publication, catholic republican presidential candidates like jeb bush and rick santorum had been admonishing the pope that science is better left to scientists. that was exactly what francis, the former chemist, thought he was doing by accepting the view of 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists. for francis, the source of the earth<u+2019>s degradation was clear: <u+201c>[t]he degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey.<u+201d>





























in july, pope francis delivered his fiercest condemnation of contemporary capitalism to date, addressing an assembly of political and community activists in bolivia. behind global capital<u+2019>s indifference to the poor and the planet and all the <u+201c>pain, death and destruction<u+201d> it brings, he said, there lies <u+201c>the stench of what basil of caesarea<u+2014>one of the church<u+2019>s first theologians<u+2014>called <u+2018>the dung of the devil.<u+2019> an unfettered pursuit of money rules. the service of the common good is left behind.<u+201d> in this <u+201c>subtle dictatorship,<u+201d> capital has become an idol. in response, francis called for change<u+2014><u+201c>real change, structural change<u+201d><u+2014>using the word no fewer than 32 times. land, lodging and labor were <u+201c>sacred rights,<u+201d> and working for their <u+201c>just distribution<u+201d> was a <u+201c>moral obligation<u+201d> and, for christians, a <u+201c>commandment.<u+201d>









such talk has had an immediate impact in american politics. the afl-cio<u+2019>s policy director damon silvers, who is not a catholic, said: <u+201c>i couldn<u+2019>t recall any leader of any religion in my lifetime speaking so plainly about economic justice and how that is at the core of how we human beings are supposed to treat each other.<u+201d> at the other end of the political spectrum, fox news<u+2019> greg gutfeld, a former altar boy, labeled the pope <u+201c>the most dangerous man on the planet.<u+201d> big catholic donors like american billionaire ken langone, working to raise $180 million for the restoration of st. patrick<u+2019>s cathedral in new york, have been so upset by the pope<u+2019>s unvarying pronouncements that they warned cardinals that wealthy catholics might stop giving to the church. the pope<u+2019>s aversion to red-blooded capitalism is just too apocalyptic for america<u+2019>s tycoons<u+2014>overlooking the curative powers of technology, ignoring the way the free market had lifted millions from poverty and refusing to consider that catholic teaching on contraception is partly to blame for our overcrowded planet.









yet francis<u+2019> supporters argue that he is not advocating a specific political program; rather than taking political sides, he is trying to open people<u+2019>s minds to the generosity, openness and inclusiveness of the gospel. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s not marxism,<u+201d> one cardinal told me. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s classic catholic social teaching, as developed by previous popes.<u+201d> what, after all, is francis<u+2019> joyful embrace of the poor and the rejected<u+2014>kissing a man with a terrible skin disease, visiting thousands of african migrants washed up on europe<u+2019>s shores in lampedusa, italy<u+2014>but an echo of jesus of nazareth?









it<u+2019>s this appeal to ordinary people that underscores just how bold francis<u+2019> agenda truly is. he addresses his message not only to catholics but, as his documents have insisted, to <u+201c>all people of good will.<u+201d> his call for society to break with <u+201c>compulsive consumerism<u+201d> and move to a more <u+201c>sustainable<u+201d> pattern of life will affect thousands of catholic schools, parishes and hospitals throughout the united states and the world. but his plea that rich nations should turn down the air-conditioning, embrace carpooling and make other lifestyle changes has the capacity to enthuse many who do not normally look to catholic moral theology for inspiration.









and it has left free-market advocates and politicians around the world with a troubling question: what if the people actually respond?
the pope vs. america
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