Pope Francis decries 'trickle-down economics'

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- "Trickle-down economics" doesn't help society's poor as promised, but does create an "idolatry of money" that is leading to "a new tyranny," Pope Francis said.

"Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories, which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world," Francis said in an 84-page formal pronouncement known as an apostolic exhortation, outlining the vision for his papacy.

"This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system," he said.

"Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting," Francis said in the 48,000-word non-doctrinal exhortation, whose formal authority is lower than that of a papal encyclical but higher than that of an ecclesiastical letter.

The document can be found at tinyurl.com/UPI-Apostolic-Exhortation.

The excluded are equal as humans to everyone else, and each person has an inherent responsibility to help those whose lives are "stunted for lack of opportunity," he said.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" he asked.

"This is a case of exclusion," he said.

"Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving?" he asked.

"This is a case of inequality," he said.

Francis blamed exclusion and inequality on what he observed as a veneration of money.

"The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose," he said.

Ideologies that "defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace" have created a time when governments no longer exercise their responsibility to protect the common good, he said.

"A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules," he said.

He said he prayed for political leaders with a social conscience.

"I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!" he said. "It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare."

He also called on followers of the church to leave the safety of their houses of worship and move to the vulnerability of life in the trenches.

"I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he said.

Francis, elected pope March 13 following the February resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, called for "broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the church," but said the ordination of women as priests was "not a question open to discussion."

Women's roles can increase "in the various other settings where important decisions are made," he said.

In his exhortation, titled "Evangelii Gaudium," or "The Joy of the Gospel," Francis also called for "a new phase of evangelization, one marked by enthusiasm and vitality."

The renewed and restored pastoral evangelism, he said, will require the church to "abandon the complacent attitude that says: 'We have always done it this way,'" to find novel, "bold and creative" ways to speak to the faithful and to add meaning to the church.