Pope Benedict XVI raged with equal fire against Marxism and capitalism, with a t authoritarians..
The IHT story continued:
“Both capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures, and they declared that these, once established, would function by themselves,” he said. “And this ideological promise has proven false.”
Marxism, he said, left “a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction.” Capitalism, he said, has failed to bridge the “distance between rich and poor” and is “giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.”
He is not recommending a religious state:
“This political task is not the immediate competence of the church,” he said. “Respect for a healthy secularity — including the pluralism of political opinions — is essential to in the authentic Christian tradition.
“If the church were to start transforming herself into a directly political subject, she would do less, not more, for the poor and for justice.”