In an interview with the Serbian newspaper Politika published on Sunday, Pope Francis ridiculed those who protest the perpetual lockdowns and the loss of everyday freedoms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic as selfish.
The pope’s remarks come amid a rash of new lockdown orders in Europe. In the past two weeks, a so-called second wave of the virus has led to some form of lockdown in Ireland, The United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany, along with several other nations. France has imposed a strict national lockdown, which began last Friday.
Often dubbed the “social justice pope” for his leftist stances on climate change, same-sex civil unions, and capitalism, Francis also noted that, during the coronavirus crisis, some have “relentlessly profited” off the woes of others.
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In comparing those who toe-the-line to governmental dictates, whom he dubbed “urban heroes,” to those who chafe at the restrictions of freedom, Francis said: “We have an increase in the number of those who have relentlessly profited from someone else’s misfortune, or those who have thought only of themselves, who have protested or complained about certain restrictive measures, unable to accept that not everyone has the same opportunities and resources to face a pandemic.”
So, apparently, in Pope Francis’s eyes, if one suffers all should suffer. The pope seems to be forgetting about — or not accepting — the prevalent and very real harms that strict lockdowns have caused in the lives of everyday people. While his concern for those sick from COVID19 may be admirable, Francis gives short shrift to those who are suffering as a result of the lockdowns themselves.
Francis neglects to address the fear and anxiety caused by prolonged lockdowns and the depression and increase in suicides that such isolation inevitably leads to. He neglects to account for the economic impacts — the loss of jobs and family businesses. The pope doesn’t even seem to care that places of worship have been shut down and deemed “non-essential” by governments around the globe.
The pope also claimed that there would be no return to normalcy post pandemic, only a societal change for better or worse. “In our pandemic context, we are tempted to think of ‘normality’ as a return to the past; we want to ‘fix the house’ again based on what we have already experienced. It is a temptation to ‘mourn the black onion from Egypt,’ to regret what has passed, which prevents us from seeing one of the basic characteristics of the situation we are going through: we do not come out of the crisis the same; we can get better or worse, but never the same,” Francis said.
So, a different type of world will come out of the ashes created by COVID-19. Is Pope Francis signaling that he is on-board with the globalist “Great Reset” being touted by the World Economic Forum? Likely.
The pontiff doesn’t have much use for the free market in the coming new world. In a new encyclical distributed in early October, Francis wrote that capitalism is simply not up to the challenge of the crises that the planet will face.
“The marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem, however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith,” Pope Francis wrote. “Whatever the challenge, this impoverished and repetitious school of thought always offers the same recipes. Neoliberalism simply reproduces itself by resorting to the magic theories of ‘spillover’ or ‘trickle’ — without using the name — as the only solution to societal problems.”
Of course, capitalism is not the only solution to society’s ills. It’s only the most effective one we’ve come up with so far. And usually when it is being blamed for failure, the failure is a result of government interference in the economy. Meanwhile, Pope Francis’ preferred method of economic model, socialism, has failed literally everywhere it’s been tried.
According to Pope Francis, the church’s role is to assist the governments of the world in creating a new people-centered society where wealth and prosperity is eschewed for a nebulous greater good. “As churches, it is our duty to invite other actors and encourage processes that will help us release the trapped view of the world that is organized around power, wealth and greed. To call to create a (new) normality.”
A “new normality” where outcomes are equal instead of opportunities being equal and where any monetary success equals greed. That’s the failed breed of communism — and though it sounds good on paper, its enactment has been tragic everywhere.
