Is Pope Francis Too Liberal? Some House Republicans Think So
Very few House Republicans support a resolution to honor Pope Francis for his humanitarian efforts, and a GOP insider frankly admits that it is because they believe Pope Francis is too liberal.
Many others agree, and the anonymous source claims that much of the GOP’s concern with the liberality of the Pope is due to the Pope’s “skepticism of unregulated capitalism” which they believe not only makes him “too liberal,” but puts his economic worldview perilously close to that of President Obama’s. And the numbers don’t lie – out of the 221 co-sponsers of the bill, only 19 of them are Republican.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a Catholic, warmly invited Pope Francis to address Congress in a statement made in March 2014. The invitation prompted the writing of House Resolution 440, a seemingly bi-partisan piece of legislation that Rep. Pete King (R – NY), one of the few Republican backers, says is a way of making the invitation to Pope Francis to address Congress more official, and simply officially recognizes the pope’s “inspirational statements and actions,” as well as congratulating him on his election. The resolution was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in December 2013, but there has been no move forward on it since then.
With Pope Francis’s recent announcement about his plans to travel to the United States in 2015, many in the House are asking that the resolution be put forth, but House Republicans’ concerns over how liberal they perceive the Pope’s views to be, particularly on capitalism, have stalled it going forward. The Pope’s view on such matters as unfettered capitalism and income inequality are viewed to be decidedly populist and liberal-leaning, as the pope has made such statements as “Inequality is the root of social evil” as well as his 50,000 word papal statement that attacked a market system and economic theories that discredit and disavow taxation and regulation.
“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
Meanwhile, the pope added, “people are still waiting.”
The anonymous Republican source to The Hill believes that it may be the pope’s specific use of the term “trickle-down economics” that has caused House Republicans to believe he is too liberal. Although the term used to be applied by both Republicans and Democrats alike, Republicans now see it as a politically-charged term.
What do you think – is the Pope too liberal?
[Image Credit via Newsweek]
