MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ailing Pope critical of free market policies

In Francis' view, the “god of the market” and “the goddess of profit” are “false deities.”

The Buenos Aires-born Pope Francis was hospitalized Wednesday for a medical check-up after which he was discharged with a flu-like state as concerns over the 87-year-old Pontiff's health mounted after he asked an assistant to do the reading for him during a service in which he told the faithful that he was still not feeling well. He had also canceled Saturday and Monday's engagements.

“Dear brothers and sisters, I still have a bit of a cold,” Francis commented Wednesday with a hoarse voice and a little coughing.

In December, the Pope was forced to cancel a planned trip to a COP28 climate meeting in Dubai due to influenza and lung inflammation. Last month he was unable to finish a speech because of “a touch of bronchitis.” In his younger years in his native Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had part of his lung removed. He has also had difficulty walking lately and usually uses a wheelchair or a cane.

Nevertheless, he sent a message to the inauguration of the Pan-American Committee of Judges and Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine (Copaju) headquarters in the Argentine capital which seemed to be aimed at President Javier Milei: “Legitimacy of origin is not enough, the exercise must also be legitimate” while stressing the importance of the presence of the State for redistribution and social justice in a world of “intense injustice.”

Francis insisted that the Judiciary “is the last resort available to the State to remedy violations of rights and preserve the institutional and social balance.”

“We live in times of intense injustice: a few rich people increasingly powerful and millions of poor people denied and discarded,” he went on. “There is no future, no development, no justice, and no democracy in a world where millions of children eat daily only the waste of those who do consume,” he added.

The Pope also recalled that “social rights are not free” and that “the wealth to sustain them is available, but requires adequate, rational and equitable political decisions.”

“The rules, dear judges, have already been dictated. They are in force. The problem is their effective enforcement,” he elaborated. “And that is where your role begins.”

In Francis' view, the “god of the market” and “the goddess of profit” are “false deities that lead us to dehumanization and the destruction of the planet.”