By Adolfo Santos, a leader of the Socialist Left/IWU-FI, Argentina
Finally, on 8 May, white smoke rose from the chimney mounted on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Broadcast live around the world, French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti pronounced the phrase “Habemus papam” from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and confirmed the chosen one: the American-Peruvian Cardinal Robert Prevost, who will bear the name of Leo XIV.
Let’s draw some initial conclusions. It was one of the shortest papal conclaves in history, demonstrating that beyond the differences between ultra-conservatives and “progressives” that foreshadowed a schism in the Catholic Church in the future, the cardinals bowed to a figure who would be “far from comfort and at the service of the peripheries,” as some define the new Pope. Francis’s papacy continued. The Catholic Church is experiencing a profound crisis, fuelled by the decline of imperialist capitalism and the growing disbelief of the masses in its traditional political leaders, including church authorities. For years, allegations of financial scandals and corruption have been growing, such as the famous case of the fraud at the Banco Ambrosiano, which handled Vatican funds (1982). In recent years, allegations of sexual abuse and paedophilia within the Catholic Church have increased.
This crisis caused an unprecedented event in 2013: the resignation of Pope Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, whom Francis replaced. Defending traditional Catholic values proved untenable for the German Pope. Vatican financial scandals linked his papacy, and people exposed his Hitler Youth past. The 2008 crisis and global worker protests forced the Catholic Church to replace Benedict XVI with Francis.
The appointment of the Argentinian Jesuit Jorge Bergoglio in 2013 was an attempt to bring about change by appointing a non-European, but Latin American pope to pose as a progressive. He sought to restore the Vatican’s image and regain some of the significant ground lost by the Catholic Church. They elected Leo XIV similarly. They need to prevent the continued emigration of the faithful, a problem that is leaving the Church without pastors because of the lack of religious vocation among young people. But also, because the crisis of global capitalism not only continues but is worsening, especially with the rise of figures like Donald Trump, the leader of global imperialism, whose measures are causing insoluble chaos for the exploited masses of the world. That’s why they didn’t elect Cardinal Raymond Burke, Trump’s favourite, but elected American-Peruvian Robert Prevost, appointed by Francis as bishop of Chiclayo, in north-western Peru. Later, Francis himself, preparing the replacement, transferred him to Rome in 2023, appointing him to important positions to ensure his continuity.
There is no new model for the Church
This does not mean we are facing the “Church of the poor,” a concept introduced by Pope John XXIII at the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and revived by Pope Francis with the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium. It is an adaptation to the times of an institution that has seamlessly accompanied capitalism for more than 500 years. Someone also conceived the name Leo XIV for the present. In 1891, Leo XIII (pope from 1878 to 1903) wrote the encyclical Rerum Novarum, with which he founded the Social Doctrine of the Church. This encyclical denounced, during the rise of capitalism, the levels of exploitation of the working class and called for better wages and living conditions. However, it denounced the advance of socialism.
The rise of Marxism in the late 19th century, which in 1917 would give rise to the Russian Revolution, the greatest revolution of the 20th century, put capitalism on alert. The Church built a protective shield with social doctrine to prevent the exploited and oppressed of the world from moving toward socialism. It was not against capitalism and socialism equally, as many present this doctrine. It had a single aim: the defense of capitalism.
Now, the so-called “church of the poor” is nothing more than a doublespeak adapted to the times. And the current times of chaos and disorder need this facade more than ever. They are merely political positions, adopted, to perpetuate power in the service of preserving capitalism. Its historical content can not confuse the form the Church takes by its essence, which is profoundly reactionary.
The Catholic Church and the Vatican have not changed. Though Pope Francis refused to wear the traditional red shoes or stayed in the “simple” Casa de Santa Marta, its role was the same. The Church will not change because the new Pope, a “Peruvian,” plays tennis, or has toured his diocese of Chiclayo on horseback.
We maintain a critical position toward the Catholic Church as an institution
Progressive winks cannot hide the role of the Catholic Church. With Pope Francis at the helm, it denied women’s most basic rights, such as the legalization of abortion, got against the campaign of the entire ecclesiastical apparatus. Francis’s “changes” were so superficial that paedophile or abusive priests continue to be protected by church authorities. They are merely “transferred” to avoid a bigger scandal. Women were not only completely absent from the conclave of cardinals, barred from the priesthood. Divorced men and sexual dissidents continue to be “sinners,” as the parish priest of Chiclayo, Jorge Millan Cotrina, a disciple of the new Pope, put it.
The Catholic Church opposes the legalisation of same-sex marriage. It clings to the economic resources and privileges granted by different governments, refusing the separation of church and state. This is without mentioning the sinister role it historically played. It executed Muslims and Jews in the Middle Ages, supported a systematic genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas, and burned women at the stake accused of witchcraft. Pope Pius XII was a direct collaborator of Nazism, and in Argentina the Church leadership was complicit in the genocidal dictatorship. There were sectors of the Church that defended workers or confronted dictatorships. The Third World priests of Brazil, Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, or Enrique Angelelli under the Argentinian dictatorship. But these were exceptions: the rule of the Catholic leadership represented by the Vatican has been to maintain a reactionary policy in service to the capitalist-imperialist system.
Socialist Left and the International Workers’ Unity Fourth International (IWU-FI) respect the religious positions and beliefs of each comrade. We understand this is a decision of an intimate and personal nature. However, we maintain a critical position toward the Catholic Church as an institution. We hold a different opinion from those who define Bergoglio as the “Pope of the poor” or from those who are heaping similar praise on Leo XIV. As we have stated so many times, we revolutionary socialists are convinced that social justice and dignity for the billions of poor, marginalized, and oppressed people of this planet can only be achieved by fighting exploitation everywhere, overthrowing the inhumane system of capitalism, and establishing socialism with full democracy for the working people.
