The Pope Francis Revolución

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, and his predecessor before him, Francis will preach to the masses in front of the iconic 118-foot-tall depiction of Latin America’s most famous revolutionary.

It is a fitting backdrop. The political ideologies of social and economic reform of Pope Francis are in their own way revolutionary.

During his latest trip to South America, the pope made some of his strongest ever criticisms of capitalism. Francis blasted what he called a “subtle dictatorship” and urged a revolt against it. These remarks highlight the pope’s staunch anti-capitalism, as well as an antagonism to those who advocate it.

Today, almost 50 years since the death of Che Guevara, in a world with more than 1,800 billionaires, Pope Francis, with his barely concealed attacks on the capitalist United States, is renewing the call for global revolution.

The pope’s statement has all the hallmarks of the former government of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. Árbenz was president of Guatemala when Che Guevara was alive. It was Guzmán who enacted land reform policies that stripped capitalist companies, such as United Fruit, of hundreds of thousands of acres in Guatemala and gave it to the peasant class.

Francis has attributed the plight of millions in Latin America to the greed of capitalism. In his recent trip to Bolivia, Pope Francis called capitalism “the dung of the devil.” These words are being well received by the poorer classes of Latin America. And why not? The pope is giving the masses a cause to rally against, saying that wealth and opportunity will be the prize for success against American capitalism.

And Francis is right in some respects. Western-style economic systems are broken; they are motivated by greed, and are influenced by big corporations that don’t necessarily have their workers’ best interests at heart. But does that make Pope Francis’s solutions any more tenable? Will his “change from below” spell prosperity, peace and tranquility? As Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald stated on the July 22Trumpet Daily Radio Show airing on KPCG.fm:

The solution is not the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Look at Europe during the Middle Ages when the Catholic Church was the central authority. Did Europe prosper? Was Europe a continent of peace and happiness and tranquility when the pope’s religion was in control?

No. It was the Dark Ages. The ignorant peasant class lived destitute under the gaze of the vastly wealthy Catholic Church. Can Pope Francis offer anything more by tearing down capitalism?

Hale continued (op. cit.):

If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: Pope Francis is no moderate. In what some are calling a “nearly revolutionary” speech, Francis gave a 55-minute papal tour de force in Bolivia … calling for structural change to a global economy that runs “counter to the plan of Jesus.”

The pope is revolutionizing Latin America against the United States. It is much more than a call to arms for the rebel-hearted. Pope Francis is making it a religious obligation to tear down capitalism—and the nations that perpetuate it.

During his fiery speech in Bolivia this July, Francis proclaimed, “Let us not be afraid to say it: We want change, real change, structural change.” His speech was preceded by Bolivian President Evo Morales, who sported a jacket adorned with the face of Che Guevara. The president gave the pope a wooden hammer and sickle—the symbol of communism—with a figure of a crucified Christ resting on the hammer.

The combination of Catholicism and communism seems a volatile mix, yet Pope Francis is harnessing both for a purpose to wage an all-out assault on capitalist America and to bring about global revolution. Pope Francis means to stir up rebellion. Revolution will be directed at those who exemplify capitalism, primarily the United States. Thus if Francis is to tear apart the global economy and rebuild it with his Catholic ideologies, capitalist America must be confronted. Trumpet editor in chiefGerald Flurry wrote in the March Trumpet issue:

If Pope Francis is to be taken at his word, he could not possibly wish for the capitalist example nation to thrive, prosper and continue inflicting its “tyranny” on the world. If he is sincere in saying the capitalist system is a force of destruction, then he would feel not only justified, but obligated to use his influence to weaken it.

As the Trumpet has repeatedly warned, Pope Francis intends to remake the global societal structure. Che Guevara’s days as the face of revolution are over. Latin America’s new revolutionary face is that of the first Latin American pope.

This year has already seen Vatican-induced changes to Cuba and the broader region. Now the stage is set for the attack on American capitalism to continue, only this time it will not be by the likes of Che Guevara and his guerrillas, but by the leader of the most powerful religious organization on Earth. ▪

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