Pope Francis: ‘I Am Not A Liberal, My Doctrine Is The Social Doctrine Of The Church’

During his flight to Washington on Tuesday, Pope Francis reportedly responded to questions from reporters about some media reports and commentaries portraying him as a liberal.

According to Time, Pope Francis appeared bemused by the suggestion that his pronouncements and actions as the head of the Catholic Church indicate that he is left-leaning.

“Some people might say some things sounded slightly more left-ish,” he said, “but that would be a mistake of interpretation. Maybe I have given an impression of being a little bit to the left, but I follow the Church. My doctrine on all this… on economic imperialism, is that of the social doctrine of the Church.”

“And if you want me to pray the creed [to prove that I follow the Church and not liberalism], I’m willing to do it,” he added jokingly.

During the chat with reporters aboard the chartered Alitalia jet, nicknamed “Shepherd One,” Pope Francis emphasized that his views on social, economic, and political issues are in accordance with what he termed “the social doctrine of the Church,” and not with the tenets of liberal or progressive ideology.

“I am sure that I have not said anything more than what is in the social doctrine of the church.”

The pontiff was at pains to emphasize the point that his “doctrine is the social doctrine of the Church” as a way of responding to claims by some conservatives that he espouses liberal ideology.

Conservative critics often cite the pope’s views on poverty and income inequality to defend the argument that he is “pushing a liberal agenda.”

While conservatives generally consider the argument that Pope Francis is liberal as indictment, many Democrats have welcomed the idea of the pope’s alleged liberalism. And some liberals have implied that identification of the world’s most prominent religious leader as liberal vindicates their claim of moral and ethical superiority of left wing ideology over right wing ideology.

It is clear that the Obama administration and U.S. liberals are looking to take advantage of the confluence of their views with the pope’s to promote contentious liberal policies on issues such as climate change, poverty, income inequality and immigration.

But conservatives who complain about the pope’s “liberalism” overlook the fact that he agrees with them on social issues such as divorce, same-sex marriage, abortion, and religious freedom.

For instance, he has shown support for the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Catholic nuns who sued the Obama administration under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act over the birth control mandate of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

The Catholic nuns claim that the ACA mandate violates their religious freedom by forcing them against their religious beliefs to provide insurance cover for contraception.

[Image: Getty]