Pope says free market, 'trickle-down' policies fail society

'EMPIRE OF MONEY'

The 2007-2008 financial crisis was a missed opportunity for change, instead producing "increased freedom for the truly powerful, who always find a way to escape unscathed". Society must confront "the destructive effects of the empire of money".

Francis repeated past calls for redistribution of wealth to help the poorest and for fairer access to natural resources by all.

"The right to private property can only be considered a secondary natural right, derived from the principle of the universal destination of created goods," he said.

A Vatican official said the pope was referring to those with massive wealth.

The pope wrote that the belief of early Christians - "that if one person lacks what is necessary to live with dignity, it is because another person is detaining it" - was still valid.

Those with much must "administer it for the good of all" and rich nations are obliged to share wealth with poor ones. But he said he was "certainly not proposing an authoritarian and abstract universalism".

Some ultra-traditionalist Catholics have accused Francis of secretly backing a perceived plot for a "One-World Government," a debunked conspiracy theory.

Without naming countries or people, Francis condemned politicians who "seek popularity by appealing to the basest and most selfish inclinations" or who enact policies of "hatred and fear towards other nations".

Addressing racism, a key issue in the United States following the Black Lives Matter movement, Francis said: "Racism is a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting."

He repeated calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the death penalty, positions which have been assailed by conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States.