{"id":290392,"date":"2025-10-09T22:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290392\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T22:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:48:17","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-criticizes-wealthy-elites-bubble-of-comfort-and-luxury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290392\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV criticizes wealthy elite’s bubble of comfort and luxury"},"content":{"rendered":"

VATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV<\/a> criticized how the wealthy live in a \u201cbubble of comfort and luxury\u201d while poor people suffer on the margins, confirming in his first teaching document that he is in perfect lockstep with his predecessor Pope Francis<\/a> on matters of social and economic injustice.<\/p>\n

The Vatican on Thursday released the document, entitled \u201cI have loved you,\u201d which Francis had begun to write in his final months but never finished. Leo, who was elected in May, credited Francis with the text, cited him repeatedly, but said he had made the document his own and signed it.<\/p>\n

The 100-page document traces the history of Christianity\u2019s constant concern for poor people, from Biblical citations and the teaching of church fathers to the preaching of recent popes about caring for migrants, prisoners and victims of human trafficking. <\/p>\n

Leo credits especially women\u2019s religious orders with carrying out God\u2019s mandate to care for the sick, feed the poor and welcome the stranger, and also praised lay-led popular movements advocating for land, housing and work for the society\u2019s most disadvantaged.<\/p>\n

The conclusion Leo draws is that the Catholic Church\u2019s \u201cpreferential option for the poor\u201d has existed from the start, is non-negotiable and is the very essence of what it means to be Christian. He calls for a renewed commitment to fixing the structural causes of poverty, while providing unquestioning charity to those who need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the church kneels beside a leper, a malnourished child or an anonymous dying person, she fulfills her deepest vocation: to love the Lord where he is most disfigured,\u201d Leo writes.<\/p>\n

Citing Francis, a critique of the wealthy<\/p>\n

Leo cites Francis frequently<\/a>, including in some of the Argentine pope\u2019s most-quoted talking points about the global \u201ceconomy that kills\u201d and criticism of trickle down economics. Francis made those points from the very start of his pontificate in 2013, saying he wanted a \u201cchurch that is poor and for the poor.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cGod has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest,\u201d Leo writes.<\/p>\n

Echoing Francis, Leo rails against the \u201cillusion of happiness\u201d derived from accumulating wealth. \u201cThus, in a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 frequent criticism of capitalism angered many conservative and wealthy Catholics, especially in the United States, who accused the Argentine Jesuit of being a Marxist. <\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Leo said such misdirected criticism cannot be leveled against him. \u201cThe fact that I am American means, among other things, people can\u2019t say, like they did about Francis, \u2018he doesn\u2019t understand the United States, he just doesn\u2019t see what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d Leo told Crux, a Catholic site.<\/p>\n

As a result, Leo\u2019s embrace of Francis\u2019 teaching on poverty and the church\u2019s obligation to care for the weakest is a significant reaffirmation, especially in Leo\u2019s first teaching document.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 spirit in text and launch<\/p>\n

Vatican officials insisted that the text was fully Leo\u2019s and declined to say how much Francis had written before he died. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 100% Francis and it\u2019s 100% Leo,\u201d said Cardinal Michael Czerny, who runs the Vatican\u2019s development and migrants office and was a top Francis aide. Asked if the same conservatives who labeled Francis a Marxist or Communist will now accuse Leo of the same, Czerny noted that both are merely following the Gospel.<\/p>\n

Such labels \u201csay much more about the person who is using the label,\u201d Czerny said. \u201cThe problem is not Pope Francis\u2019 or Pope Leo\u2019s. The problem is the person,\u201d using such labels to reject the church\u2019s teaching.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 spirit was very much infused in the document and in its official presentation on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In addition to Czerny, the news conference featured a rare appearance by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Polish prelate whom Francis entrusted with carrying out his personal acts of charity over the course of his pontificate. Under Krajewski\u2019s quiet eye, the Vatican installed showers for homeless people off St. Peter\u2019s Square, provided COVID-19 vaccines for 6,000 migrants and people without access to Italy\u2019s health service, sent ambulances with medicine to Ukraine and hosted weekly luncheons for the hungry. <\/p>\n

Krajewski said the document was proof that such gestures of charity toward the needy come straight from the Bible, recalling that Jesus didn\u2019t work 9-5 in an office, but rather went out and looked for people who needed him.<\/p>\n

Krajewski regaled reporters with anecdotes of his behind-the-scenes dealings with Francis, who would jokingly reprimand him if his bank account had too much money in it because it meant he hadn\u2019t spent enough on poor people. <\/p>\n

Signed on the feast of St. Francis<\/p>\n

Leo signed the text on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century mendicant friar who renounced his wealth to live poor among the poor. The date was not coincidental.<\/p>\n

The late Pope Francis named himself after the saint and one of the pontiff\u2019s most important documents \u2014 \u201cFratelli Tutti\u201d (Brothers All)<\/a> \u2014 was itself published on the Oct. 4 feast day in 2020.<\/p>\n

Leo, too, seems inspired by the saint\u2019s example: As a young priest, the former Robert Prevost left the comforts of home to work as a missionary in Peru as a member of the Augustinian religious order, one of the other ancient mendicant orders that considers community, the sharing of communal property and service to others as central tenets of its spirituality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the church\u2019s mission, convinces me of the need to go back and reread the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world,\u201d Leo writes.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV criticized how the wealthy live in a \u201cbubble of comfort and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20496,8571,57,148943,148944,50,20211,3417,365,67,22062,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-290392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-catholic-church","9":"tag-christianity","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-konrad-krajewski","12":"tag-michael-czerny","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pope-francis","15":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","16":"tag-religion","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-vatican-city","19":"tag-washington-news","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115346651677572119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}