Pope Francis and Latin American Conservatives
Lots and lots of news about the Pope's visit to Latin America. What I find interesting is that I can't remember the last time conservative elites felt threatened by the Pope. If anybody speaks for that elite, it's Mary Anastasia O'Grady, and she is ticked off.
But this pope is very political and his politics, if we take him at his word, favor statist solutions to poverty. In terms of appearances that puts him on the same side of many policy debates as the region’s socialist tyrants.
Chilean elites are nervous about him too because they figure a lefty Pope will favor Bolivia's territorial claims. Republicans in the U.S. say he's selling socialism to Latin America.
Ultimately, I don't see the Pope's visit having much of a lingering effect, but I like even the brief insistence that it's the Pope's job to make oligarchies feel uncomfortable.
2 comments:
O'Grady is correct when she says, "Now the Holy Father is walking into a political mine field in Ecuador". Things are quite tense here from the right, left and center. And it's true that the Ecuadorian government has been trying to align itself with Francisco, but I don't think this is the church's doing. Anyway, that's one grad student's view from Quito. I'd love to see you write more about Ecuador!
That's not the first time someone has said that, but there is only so much I can cover!
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