It really makes it hard to be an Atheist when the Pope is so fucking awesome. Maybe that’s the point. Atheist or not, Pope Francis is one of my top living heroes.
Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth and benefits to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the “economy of exclusion” that is taking hold today (source)
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The Legal Satyricon 
Marc I hope you will forgive a brief dissent.
The Pope is advocating theft of money from those who have earned it legally. Surely this is unethical.
Since the Catholic church is tax-exempt wherever it operates, it is immune from the organized theft that the Pope advocates for other wealthy entities. Surely this is hypocritical.
Historically, in the long term, the poor have benefited more from free markets and innovation than from redistribution of wealth, yet the Church engages in redistribution (under the guise of “charity”) while skimming a percentage for itself. This seems both ineffective and parasitical.
The Church has accumulated wealth by promising people salvation. This would be a violation of ethics in any other business, and I consider it fraudulent.
If the Church really wanted to help people, it could use its very substantial resources to create a venture capital division, assisting people in poor nations to start small businesses. This might create wealth instead of merely redistributing it.
The Pope seems a nice guy, and no doubt his intentions are good. But he should surely know where the path leads that is paved with good intentions.
Of course, dissent is always welcomed — even encouraged.
I’d be happy with “encouraged governments stop wasting the money they are given” and asked religious busybodies to mind their own business.