Portside

Condemning the “new tyranny” of unfettered capitalism and the “idolatry of money,” Pope Francis argues in a newly circulated apostolic exhortation that “as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”

Pope Francis makes it clear in his Apostolic Exhortation "EVANGELII GAUDIUM" that he shares little in common with U.S. conservatives.

Listen. That sound you hear is the shredding of the social contract.

The Vatican has been turned upside down, but can he ensure that his radical changes to the Church will last?

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"The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules," Francis says. "Ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all." In general, he seems to suggest he wants the church to come off as less judgmental and more pastoral, though without becoming morally "lax."

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