Pope Francis Laments Failures Of Market Capitalism In Blueprint For Post-COVID World

Pope Francis has presented his blueprint for a post-COVID-19 world, covering a vast number of issues from fraternity and income inequality to immigration and social injustice.

The document, released Sunday, is his third encyclical — the most authoritative form of papal teaching.

Its title is Fratelli Tutti, and it is a scathing description of laissez faire capitalism and a meditation on the coronavirus pandemic that has swept across the globe.

Pope Francis began writing the document early this year, with the aim of focusing on interreligious dialogue following the landmark joint statement he signed in February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque and one of the highest authorities of Sunni Islam.

But, as Francis writes, the pandemic "unexpectedly erupted" and his focus widened, and the document became a treatise on the lessons that must be learned from the global health crisis.

Once the pandemic passes, the pope writes, "our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation."