Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on the sexual trafficking of young women, child homelessness, sweatshops

The need for a "social relationship" was a persistent call in Bergoglio's episcopal documents in recent years. This is an idea he expressed even in the Te Deum that Bergoglio officiated in 2006 when then President Nestor Kirchner was sitting in the front row.

But by the end of that difficult year, the Church and the Government seemed to have found a balance. Bergoglio then invited Cristina Kirchner to a Mass in Luján and the President accepted his invitation.

The calm did not last long. In 2009, Bergoglio made harsh statements against the government. ... One day after the Pope called for an end to the "scandal" of poverty in Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio echoed that "for years the country hadn't taken care of the people."

http://www.treslineas.com.ar/jorge-bergoglio-kirchner-anos-relacion-tensa-n-829290.html

Pope Benedict also devoted considerable attention to issues of social and economic justice; his third encyclical, "Charity in Truth," included a critique of unfettered free market capitalism, a call for redistribution of wealth and a condemnation of those who seek profits for their own sake rather than to do good for society. Though he is generally thought of as a conservative, his economic views would put him far left of center in an American political context.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-03-14/news/bs-ed-pope-francis-20130314_1_pope-benedict-priests-joseph-ratzinger

The secular clergy of his diocese, however, loved their archbishop. As auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, he managed always to be with his priests, keeping them company through crises and showing his great capacity for listening sympathetically. I have heard many stories of Bergoglio spending hours with elderly sick priests while encouraging more able colleagues to be “out on the frontiers”, to the neediest barrios, in the hospitals with Aids sufferers, in the kitchens established for hungry children. He also urged them to step out into the deep in intellectual and artistic areas: Bergoglio has never hidden a passion for literature.

Take one example of the emphasis he placed on pastoral care: when, in 2004, a fire broke out at a nightclub, Bergoglio arrived in the middle of the night, before the police and fire service, and long before the city authorities to comfort the survivors. He later established a ministry to the family and friends of the victims, and was openly critical of the government for its response to the tragedy.

Bergoglio’s words and deeds were admired as being far from the powers of this world; he has seemed indifferent to his media image, preoccupied only by the future of society, a man who was looking always for new forms of social solidarity and justice in his homeland where thousands rummage through the bins at night looking for something to eat.

The Argentinian media speak of him with awe and respect. Many, including agnostic critics of the Church, have long regarded him as the most credible social leader in a country in which politicians, union leaders and businessmen are regarded with great scepticism.

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9933015/Poverty-not-popularity-drives-this-humble-Pope-Francis.html

Is Jorge Bergoglio, The New Pope Francis, A Capitalist?

...

So today, while on an investment committee conference call, when the white smoke appeared and shortly thereafter we learned that an Argentinian Cardinal named Jorge Bergoglio had been elected and had chosen for himself the name Pope Francis, I decided that this time I was going to share my first thought with friends and colleagues on the call. Here it is: the Pope will probably move the Church culturally to the right, and more likely move it economically to the left.

In other words, the age old answer to the question, “Is the Pope Catholic?” is, “Yes.” But the answer to the question, “Is the Pope capitalist?” is, “Probably not.”

...

But let’s not ignore the fact that the poor profoundly benefit when the economy grows; more so, even than when the church offers them a soup kitchen to visit. Neither the rightist Peron, nor the current leftist administration of Argentina has done much good for the poor. A century ago it was one of the world’s more prosperous countries, but it’s repeated rejection of both classical liberalism and (later) neo-liberalism, caused its prosperity to plummet compared with much of the rest of the world.

It is no coincidence that Argentina’s score of 47 on the Index of Economic Freedom (placing it as a miserable 160th of the freest counties in the world) accompanies its terrible poverty. Even mild attempts at ‘austerity’ were criticized by the Cardinal and much of the Argentine Church, but when austerity was abandoned and the currency devalued and debt reneged upon, the lot of Argentina’s poor became even poorer.

...

The new pope seems like a wonderful man. Humble, simple, decent. But if he is going to help the Church do as much as it possibly can for the poor, he’d do well, not just to look to the wonderful St. Francis, who became poor to serve the poor, but also to the John Paul the Great who, having lived under socialism in its most virulent form, embraced the market economy for its ability to liberate the poor.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2013/03/13/is-jorge-bergoglio-the-new-pope-francis-a-capitalist/