POPE FRANCIS has blamed capitalism for the hardships society has faced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his third encyclical, published on Sunday, His Holiness stressed that the world shouldn't rely simply on the free-market and we should be aiming to live in a society that doesn't depend on capitalism to get by.
"The marketplace by itself cannot resolve every problem however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith," Francis wrote.
He added that free-market capitalism "reproduces itself" by resorting to the magic theories of "spillover" or "trickle" as the only solution to societal problem.
Francis said this "spillover" does not "resolve the inequality that gives rise to new forms of violence threatening the fabric of society."
The encyclical, called "Fratelli Tutti," or "Brothers All," reiterated the pope's vision for a more communal society, which extends to the use of private property.
"The Christian tradition has never recognised the right to private property as absolute or inviolable and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property," the pope wrote.
He also slammed the world of politics, saying politicians no longer seek to resolve issues or improve people's lives, but simply look to discredit their opponents with "slick marketing techniques".
The head of the Catholic Church also lamented the way the elderly had been abandoned during the pandemic, describing their overall treatment over the past seven months around the globe as "a tragedy".
"They did not have to die that way," he wrote.
"Yet something similar had long been occurring during heatwaves and in other situations: older people found themselves cruelly abandoned."
He continued that these elderly deaths "may prove not to be just another tragedy of history from which we learned nothing", asking the public to remember in particular "all those elderly persons who died for lack of respirators, partly as a result of the dismantling, year after year, of healthcare systems."
