Pope Francis: “…it is the communists who think like Christians”

Pope Francis climbs the steps to the altar upon arriving to give the first mass of his visit to Cuba in Havana's Revolution Square, Sept. 20.
Pope Francis climbs the steps to the altar upon arriving to give the first mass of his visit to Cuba in Havana’s Revolution Square, Sept. 20.

Last week, Pope Francis told Italian journalist and co-founder of the newspaper La Repubblica Eugenio Scalfari that “…it is the communists who think like Christians.”

Here is the exchange:

Q: You told me some time ago that the precept, “Love your neighbour as thyself” had to change, given the dark times that we are going through, and become “more than thyself.” So you yearn for a society where equality dominates. This, as you know, is the programme of Marxist socialism and then of communism. Are you therefore thinking of a Marxist type of society?

A: “It it has been said many times and my response has always been that, if anything, it is the communists who think like Christians. Christ spoke of a society where the poor, the weak and the marginalized have the right to decide. Not demagogues, not Barabbas, but the people, the poor, whether they have faith in a transcendent God or not. It is they who must help to achieve equality and freedom”.

Pope Francis also used a familiar progressive expression surrounding immigrants. He said in part, “…we need to break down walls and build bridges…” The pontiff said in part:

We must break down the walls that divide us: we must try to increase well-being and make it more widespread, but to achieve this we need to break down walls and build bridges that allow us to reduce inequality and increase freedom and rights. More rights and greater freedom.”

Wall at Vatican City
Wall at Vatican City

As an aside, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg was quoted in April as saying, “Instead of building walls we can help build bridges.” Just one month later, Zuckerburg reportedly “…started buying parcels around his Palo Alto home to protect his privacy.”

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Author: renee nal

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9 thoughts on “Pope Francis: “…it is the communists who think like Christians”

  1. I believe that Pope Francis is speaking of communism in its idealistic and purist form! In this ideology, communism focuses on helping the poor and workers who have been marginalized by the excessive greed of Laissez Faire capitalism! However, as we have witnessed from history, communism, like some instances of capitalism, has been corrupted by the all too human flaw of greed for money and power! Follow Jesus blueprint for living, (the Beatitudes, Great Commandment, Matt. Chpt. 25 etc,) and both capitalism and communism can be viable economic systems which lead to justice, equity, and harmony!

  2. Sure, communism is like Christianity. Jesus Christ often spoke of the holiness of GULAGS, death camps, purges, reeducation camps, killing fields, political oppression, forced starvation, mass graves, Stalinism, Stalinism, Stalinism…. /sarcasm

    I believe in God. I also believe that Pope Francis is playing for the other team.

  3. What if the Catholic Church was hijacked by the Mafia? The Mafia wanted total control over the followers to extract resources. They cared nothing about the religion part and made up stuff to placate people while they lived in total luxury. Well the façade is showing.

  4. The Pope may be speaking in the abstract, but if there is a spiritual message among his material messages, it gets lost in the political debris. A case for Catholicism or Christianity could be made in regards to any form of governance, or anarchism, or capitalism, if humanity were more spiritually than materially directed, but the spiritual seems to be lacking.

  5. Communism more like Christianity? Communist ideology is based on “coveting your neighbors’ goods” (accuse everybody else of being “rich”) which Christians are forbidden to do; coveting your neighbors’ goods leads to “stealing” (redistributing his wealth) your neighbors’ goods which Christians are also forbidden to do.

    Communism is founded on atheism, how can it be more “Christian” than Christianity which recognizes and obeys the Laws of a righteous and omnipotent God?

    Christian charity is to be voluntary, not imposed against ones will by government.

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