Philip Pullella — Pope offers rare 'mea culpa' about neglect of middle class

Pope Francis acknowledged on Monday he had neglected problems of the middle class and said he was willing to have a dialogue with Americans who disagree with his criticism of capitalism.

Francis, speaking to reporters on the papal plane returning from a grueling 8-day trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, also said he hoped the Greek crisis could lead to more oversight so other countries would not experience the same problems.

During the hour-long conversation with the Francis, who has made defense of the poor a major plank of his papacy, a reporter asked why he had hardly ever spoken about the problems of the "working, tax-paying" middle class.

He offered a rare papal mea culpa, thanking the reporter for his "good correction."
"You're right. It's an error of mine not to think about this," he said.

"The world is polarized. The middle class becomes smaller. The polarization between the rich and poor is big. This is true. And, perhaps this has led me to not take account of this (the problems of the middle class)," he said.

Francis said he spoke about the poor often because they were so numerous but that ordinary working people had "great value."

"I think you’re telling me about something I need to do. I need to do delve further into this ....," he said.

I would not be surprised to see an eventual papal encyclical on political economy that updates Catholic social teaching with respect to inequality. Evangelii Gaudium was a beginning and Laudato Si' elaborated some on it, but I doubt that we have heard the last word from the pope on it.

The Vatican needs better economists though.

Reuters
Pope offers rare 'mea culpa' about neglect of middle class
Philip Pullella