Public ideas
Pope Leo (and Waleed Ali) on inequality
Pope Leo hasn’t Americanised the Vatican’s moral teachings. That’s fortunate.
In some Christian circles there is a belief that Pope Francis’s teachings on poverty and inequality were something of an aberration, a left-wing excursion by a good person unduly attentive to the poverty he had witnessed in Argentina.
Surely Pope Leo – “Father Bob” who grew up in Chicago – would bring the Catholic Church back on track. It’s all very well to have compassion for the poor, but it’s the rich and successful who drive the economy. It’s risky for the Church to turn them off by appearing too soft or socialist: it’s important to keep them in the tent to make sure that some benefits of a strong economy flow to the most disadvantaged.
Those who have been hoping for such an Americanisation of the Vatican’s teachings will surely be disappointed to learn that Pope Leo’s first public document, Dilexi Te (“I have loved you”) continues with Pope Francis’s teachings on poverty and wealth.
Writing in Eureka Street – The poor at the centre: Pope Leo’s radical beginning – Andrew Hamilton summarizes Dilexi Te, drawing attention to its underlying moral philosophy, and its reference to Jesus’ attention to the poor.
Aware that we may believe that this is simply about scholarly arguments in Rome, Hamilton draws attention to an article by Waleed Aly (unfortunately paywalled) on the morality of our attitude to housing. It’s an attitude that has rendered governments “paralysed by the certainty of public anger at any action taken except those that will raise prices”. Through our collective political action we can bring pressure on governments to bring down the cost of housing, to the benefit of those who are excluded, and ignore the greed of “investors”.