VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called Tuesday for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny,” urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in the first major work he has written alone as pontiff.
The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since becoming the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.
The pope went further than in previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the “idolatry of money” and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens “dignified work, education and health care.”
He also called on rich people to share their wealth.
“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document.
“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?”
The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off, and said the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy “also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion.”
“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security,” he wrote.
In July, Francis finished an encyclical begun by Pope Benedict XVI but he made clear that it was largely the work of his predecessor, who resigned in February.
Called “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel), the exhortation is presented in Francis’ simple and warm preaching style, distinct from the more academic writings of former popes, and stresses the church’s central mission of preaching “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ.”
He reiterated earlier statements that the church cannot ordain women or accept abortion. The male-only priesthood, he said, “is not a question open to discussion,” but women must have more influence in church leadership.
Economic inequality was a central theme, with the 76-year-old pontiff calling for an overhaul of the financial system and warning that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence.
“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” he wrote.
Denying this was simple populism, he called for action “beyond a simple welfare mentality” and added: “I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.”