Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis: Against liberalism, critic of the IMF and foreign debt

[limpyhobbler]

11. Respectfully I'm very skeptical on whether this Pope believes in real economic reforms.

Or that he has any credentials as a social reformer. He uses words and symbols that appeal to poor people, but doesn't seem to back that up by supporting fundamental economic reforms. I think he might be kind of like Bill Clinton in that respect, a middle-of-the-road political opportunist, feeling our pain and stuff, but actually serving elite power by distracting the poor. He affiliates with the Communion and Liberation movement. I think that movement functioned as an anti-Marxist centrist response to Liberation Theology during the Cold War, allowing priests to speak in a vocabulary of popular liberation while actually serving capitalist power.

(The 1970s) were the years of the military junta in Argentina, when many priests, including leading Jesuits, were gravitating towards the progressive liberation theology movement. As the Jesuit provincial, Bergoglio insisted on a more traditional reading of Ignatian spirituality, mandating that Jesuits continue to staff parishes and act as chaplains rather than moving into "base communities" and political activism.
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Over the years, Bergoglio became close to the Comunione e Liberazione movement founded by Italian Fr. Luigi Giussani, sometimes speaking at its massive annual gathering in Rimini, Italy. He's also presented Giussani's books at literary fairs in Argentina. This occasionally generated consternation within the Jesuits, since the ciellini once upon a time were seen as the main opposition to Bergoglio's fellow Jesuit in Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini....

On the other hand, that's also part of Bergoglio's appeal, someone who personally straddles the divide between the Jesuits and the ciellini, and more broadly, between liberals and conservatives in the church.
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Even though he uses language like this:

"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio said during a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007. "The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."

He didn't support poor people's movements when it really counted. And I'm afraid he teaches a philosophy of personal enslavement, discouraging people from trying to improve their lives through political efforts.

... he has generally tended to accent growth in personal holiness over efforts for structural reform.

Quotes all from http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/papabile-day-men-who-could-be-pope-13

True any pope is going to say it's a sin to be gay or have an abortion. But there is also a question of how much they stress it. Will the Church teach that it's a sin to vote for candidates who favor gay marriage and abortion? We all know how those issues can be used to divide the working class. This is true in the US and also in Latin America. So I wonder how hard he is going to enforce the views on sex and abortion and whether this will divide the working class to serve the rich.

There are also allegations from other priests that during the right-wing dictatorship Bergoglio snitched on some of the radical priests and turned them in to the junta to be tortured. He denied it.

He's probably sincere in wanting to help the poor, maybe like Bill Clinton. But throughout his life he's been in a position to help those who were actually helping the poor through social movements and it seems like at best he didn't help, and probably actively opposed those movements. He got along pretty well with the dictatorship while other priests were being tortured in military prisons for trying to help the poor.

Don't get me wrong. I'm just a cynical person. It's not like we could have got some better Pope. I don't have any bad will toward the new Pope. Hopefully he will use his influence to help the poor any way he can.

See also:
Pope Francis Led Effort Against Liberation Theology and Same-Sex Marriage