Pope Francis wrote to the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, prior to the G20 summit last month. His letter addressed the “fundamental imperative of creating dignified and stable employment for all”:

“This will call for improvement in the quality of public spending and investment, the promotion of private investment, a fair and adequate system of taxation, concerted efforts to combat tax evasion and a regulation of the financial sector which ensures honesty, security and transparency.”

He explained what’s at stake:

“…there are far too many women and men suffering from severe malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists. In addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the world economy.”

The contrast between the Pope’s understanding of the role of government in promoting the common good (commonly called ‘Catholic teaching’) and the free market fundamentalism of the Koch brothers and their devotees is stark and readily apparent to anyone who has a passing familiarity with these contradictory worldviews. As Michael Sean Winters and John Gehring have demonstrated, trying to reconcile Catholic teaching and libertarianism is a fool’s errand.