This is post from the Catholci journal, Crisis:
I find this article somewhat confusing. The current economic system, regardless of its manifold benefits is not grounded in Christian principles, but in the principles of the 18th century European Enlightenment. The various economic ideas, values, and systems grounded in 18th century secularism, are essentially godless and implicitly materialistic. Whatever you want to call the economic system in the US and in many countries of the world, whatever the material benefits, it is based upon the structures of sin and intrinsically evil practices, that are tolerated and even fostered by the powerful people who run the system. It is evident that big business in the United States accepts and promotes the immoral order being established in the US and, through the US government, is bent on spreading this order throughout the world.
It is not correct to characterize the attempt of Pope Francis to teach the Church in these matters as Manichean. He is not promoting a dualism which divides humanity into good and evil. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and his powers conferred upon him as successor of Peter, he is teaching the Church, as have all the modern popes, including Benedict XVI, that the radical secularism which informs the economic and political systems, especially in the western world, are as serious a threat to the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls as were the various Marxist and Fascist governments were in the 20th century.
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