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| Credit: www.christianpost.com |
Marian Tupy, Dec. 11, 2013, Theatlantic.com
It’s official: 2013 has been the Year of the Pope. The
latest evidence? Time has named Francis its Person of the
Year, noting
that the pontiff, during his first nine months in office, “has placed himself
at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and
poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role
of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.” Indeed, the pope’s
writings and public pronouncements reveal a deeply caring and passionate man
who speaks from the heart. In Evangelii
Gaudium, an “apostolic exhortation” released late
last month, the pope bemoans inequality, poverty, and violence in
the world.
But here’s the problem: The dystopian world that Francis
describes, without citing a single statistic, is at odds with reality. In
appealing to our fears and pessimism, the pope fails to acknowledge the scope
and rapidity of human accomplishment—whether measured through declining global
inequality and violence, or growing prosperity and life expectancy.
The thesis of Evangelii Gaudium is simple: “unbridled”
capitalism has enriched a few, but failed the poor. “We have to remember,” he
writes, “that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to
day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of
many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich
countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and
violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a
struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity.”
Read the full story: www.theatlantic.com
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