One Deficit Reveals Another

On March 16, 2013, during a meeting with representatives of the international press, the newly elected Pope Francis declared: "How I would like a poor Church for the poor!" Considering all the drastic measures he is taking to try to stem the Vatican's structural deficit, one could say his wish has been granted.

The Church is so poor that the Sovereign Pontiff is forced to reduce salaries, make budget cuts, and plan to reform the pension system for employees of the smallest state in the world. And he is forced to ask the Roman dicasteries to seek external funding, recognizing that the Holy See will no longer be able to finance them as it once did.

It is clear that "a poor Church for the poor" is a generous but false idea. The reality—very prosaic—is that when the Church is poor, it can no longer help anyone. But above all, this economic crisis reveals another: the doctrinal crisis the Church has been experiencing since the Second Vatican Council.

One might naively consider the theological questions raised by conciliar religious freedom and ecumenism to be subtleties reserved for intellectuals. But when we see the Pope asking his various departments to seek to finance themselves by appealing to external donors—whose ideology is at odds with Catholic doctrine—we understand that these are not Byzantine abstractions, but concrete realities with tangible effects.

Indeed, seeking to stem an economic deficit by appealing for donations from international foundations that oppose Church doctrine—particularly in the field of bioethics, under the pretext of "protecting the planet"—is to demonstrate that one is more concerned with climate change than with theological correctness. 

The Pope received Eric Schmidt (Google) on January 15, 2016, Tim Cook (Apple) a week later, Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) on August 29, 2016, Elon Musk (Tesla) in July 2022, and Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon and CEO of the Washington Post) on August 15, 2024. Can we imagine these leaders coming only with flowers and chocolates? Or that they'll be content with a selfie with Francis?

The economic deficit has a cost, as does the doctrinal deficit. And to reduce the former, we may be tempted to exacerbate the latter by minimizing or ignoring doctrinal and moral requirements. Only the naive would believe that these multi-billionaire visitors who parade through St. Martha’s House are nothing more than selfless philanthropists, altruists who religiously follow Jesus' teaching: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Contrary to what Vespasian asserted, money has a smell and even an ideological color. The tragedy of progressives is that they are colorblind.