[Dr. Sivana]

We can take some comfort that Francis just issued excoriation of capitalism as an apostolic exhortation.

If I understand correctly, encyclicals trump exhortations.

This is a very complicated area. A lot depends on what authority the Pope is actually asserting, and the circumstances of his statement. (Even in a serious encyclical, a phrase such as "Given the current circumstances ..." means that when the circumstances change, what is to follow may or may not be as relevant.)

Second, excoriating raw capitalism does not imply supporting Marxism. There were economic systems before both Marx and Adam Smith. Even into the 20th Century, men like G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc were Distributists. They were arch-conservatives, and very anti-Marxist. The name alone, and a shallow reading on aspects of it would send some Freepers pointing "Marxist!"

Although Pope Francis shall never be confused with an Austrian economist, at least SOME of the translations have been bad, maybe purposefully bad. When the Spanish for "enterprise, by itself" is rendered "enterprise, inevitably", that is a perversion of the meaning. Fr. Z's posts here are informative.

[DManA]

, excoriating raw capitalism

Were has there been raw capitalism anywhere on Earth in the past 150 years? And as for bad translations, the document was posted in English on the Vatican's web site. Presumably the translations were done by Vatican translators.

[Running On Empty]

Thank you, Dr. Sivana

[ek_hornbeck]

Second, excoriating raw capitalism does not imply supporting Marxism. There were economic systems before both Marx and Adam Smith. Even into the 20th Century, men like G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc were Distributists. They were arch-conservatives, and very anti-Marxist. The name alone, and a shallow reading on aspects of it would send some Freepers pointing "Marxist!"

This is certainly true. The Catholic Church was anti-capitalist in the 18th and 19th century because laissez-faire (classical liberalism) was associated with enlightenment secularism, and because the emergence of a wealthy business class challenged the power of Crown and Church alike.

To this day, a lot of traditional Catholics reject laissez-faire in favor of ideologies that more closely mirror medieval society's guild system and old social hierarchy. Distributism and Falangism are recent examples, as is the Patron system that has dominated Latin American societies.

I think it's important (for accuracy and honesty) to distinguish between the criticisms of capitalism and classical liberalism by traditional Catholics from those who use the Catholic communitarian tradition as a facade for warmed-over Marxism.