The Acton Institute, devoted to the study and promotion of "a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles", published a critical review of the recent Encyclical letter drafted by Pope Francis, an apostolic exhortation "to embark upon a new charter of evangelization" but with a lot of emphasys on "a Church which is poor and for the poor" and on social dialogue. The Acton Institute reaction refers to the Pope's denounciation of the current economic system as "unjust at its root", because "a new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual" that according to this exhortation derives from an "autonomy of the market" in which "financial speculation" and "widespread corruption" and "self-serving tax-evasion reign".
Acton Responds to ‘Evangelii Gaudium’
The Acton Institute has been flooded with media requests because of the 2013 Apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis. While "Evangelii Gaudium" primarily examined the role of evangelization in the world, the new Pope also wighted in on economic issues and the free market. Acton's primary criticism of the document, stated by research director Samuel Gregg in National Review, was that far too many unexamined economic assumptions had made their way into the text. One might assume from some of the Pope's comments that the role of the State's interest is benign or unbiased in the world in comparison to the free market.
In a November 27 video response, Rev. Robert Sirico [President of the Acton Institute] said he agreed with Pope Francis when he says "markets are not enough" but added that it is important to make the distinction between a free market and the kind of crony-capitalism and unfettered governments on the rise today. "Indeed, does the Pope make a distinction between what his precedessor Blesses John Paul II called the free economy and the kind of crony of State capitalism so clearly on display today in much of his own Latin America?" asked Rev. Sirico.
Rev. Robert Sirico appeared on Fox's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" and CNBS?s "Kudlow Report", among other TV appearances. He appeared on Hugh Hewitt's radio show with guest host AEI President Arthur Brooks, and Acton Research Fellow Michael Miller also appeared on Kudlow's program.
In The Detroit News column addressing the Pope's exhortation, Rev. Sirico declared:
"We cannot respond with the truth to the challenge of erradicating exclusion and poverty if the poor continue to be objects, targets of the action of the State and other organizations in a paternalistic and aid-based sense, instead of subjects, where the State and society create social conditions that promote and safeguard their rights and allow them to be builders of their own destiny".
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