The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board released a scathing editorial branding His Holiness Pope Francis, who died at 88 on Monday, an "anti-American" who pushed ideas to "keep the poor in poverty."
After listing a few of Pope Francis' historical accomplishments, such as becoming the first Jesuit pope, the Wall Street Journal's Board attempted to outline the ways in which the Bishop of Rome "believed ideologies that keep the poor in poverty."
"One of those earthly dogmas is radical environmentalism, which isn't about keeping the earth clean for human beings but keeping the earth for itself and treating man as the enemy," the Board wrote, potentially pointing to a well-known quote in which Francis wrote, "The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth."
WSJ also argued that because His Holiness encouraged his followers to consume less, using the superfluity as an example, he seemingly did not realize "that escaping poverty requires greater energy consumption."
According to experts, however, overconsumption does not fix poverty but exacerbates it.
The Board purported Papa Francesco was anti-American because he spoke out against the Trump administration and believed Latin American countries are poor because the U.S. is rich.
Countries "languishing in poverty" need to focus instead on fixing their "lack of the rule of law, business-government collusion, protectionism, and other barriers to human flourishing," per WSJ. It alleged the pope "confused Argentina's corporatism with capitalism."
Elsewhere, WSJ criticized the Holy Father for appointing a bishop to Beijing and for prioritizing progress while "punishing" traditionalist bishops.
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