Marxist Pope Francis Warns Against Marxism
By Carole Hornsby Haynes February 13, 2022
In a recent letter to the Santa Maria Spirituality Center in Buenos Aires, Pope Francis delivered a surprising warning against the dangers of Marxist theology. His warning against “the ideologizing of a Marxist tint of some Latin American centers in the ‘70s” was a reference to the leftward shift of some Latin American Catholic Churches.
The letter was surprising because there has been ongoing concern about his Marxist views including during the selection of a new pope in 2013. A few months later he tried to deflect attention from his Leftist statements as he denied being a Marxist: “The ideology of Marxism is wrong….But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”
However, his denial of being a Marxist was negated by his support of critics of capitalism as he claimed that “trickle-down” economics do not help the poor. This is a derogatory term by critics of capitalism who believe those who innovate, create, and provide employment opportunities for others should be penalized for doing so.
In his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis bashed the free market. He went further to attack the right to own private property, stating that “the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable.” His emphatic statement that “common use of created goods” took precedence over any concept of private ownership definitely sounds Marxist.
American Catholics with Constitutional rights of ownership of private property should be alarmed by his statement, “The right to private property can only be considered a secondary natural right, derived from the principle of the universal destination of created goods.” Doesn’t that sound Marxist?
Christian churches and their leaders have been moving leftward for decades with the infiltration of Communism through liberation theology, a marriage of Marxism and Christianity.
Though many believe this was invented by Latin American Catholics, it was actually developed by the Russian KGB. In 1971 Kirill, who had just been elevated to the rank of archimandrite and also secretly worked for the KGB under the name of “Mikhailov,” was sent to Geneva as emissary of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches. His mission was to engage the WCC in spreading liberation theology in Latin America. In 1975 he was appointed to a position on the Central Committee of the WCC which he held until he became patriarch of Russia. Over the term of Kirill’s position in the Central Committee, liberation theology did become deeply entrenched in Latin America.
In 2013 Francis (former Archbishop Jorge Maria Bergoglio) became the first pope from the Western Hemisphere and the first from South America (Argentina).
While some view Pope Francis as a refreshing change from the conservatism of previous popes, others say he has the “mind of a revolutionary” and excoriate him for his promotion of cohabitation, contraception, same-sex civil unions, and supporting pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin and the radical New Ways Ministry. Recently the pope has been under fire for his new restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass.
Perhaps the recent letter to the Santa Maria Spirituality Center is an attempt again by the pope to deflect public criticism about his Leftist views.