It is unlikely Pope Francis would be waving the flag of social justice so boldly on the world stage had Pope Leo XIII not written his famous manifesto, Rerum Novarum, On the Condition of the Working Class, 125 years ago.
Francis is expanding on what Leo called for in 1891: fair wages for working people; a more equitable distribution of wealth and ownership; support for trade unions so workers could bargain with employers with a degree of equality and power; recognition of the right to strike to defend essential rights; the State to regulate working conditions and the economy to protect workers and the common good; and establishing a system of arbitration and conciliation to mediate between employers and employees.
Leo attacked the greed of 'unchecked competition' that reduced workers to 'a yoke little better than slavery itself'. He defended the right to property, but urged the State 'to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners' so working people to have a larger share in the distribution of wealth.
Such criteria remain vital even in Australia, but much more so, as Francis insists, in countries struggling to achieve decent living standards for their people.
Popes reject neoliberalism
Francis is absolutely determined to highlight the opposition of Christian social thinking to the tenets of neoliberalism or market fundamentalism, an ideology which assumes that free markets of themselves will produce the best outcome, and which pushes aside considerations of social or distributive justice.
Francis blames neoliberalism for much of the economic trauma the world has suffered since the 1980s. As adopted by Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Britain, neoliberalism emphasised supply-side economics, deregulation of restraints on business, liberalisation of capital controls, privatising state-owned enterprises and downsizing the role of government.
Neoliberalism also prescribed tax cuts for upper-income groups, resulting in growing inequality; and it increased pressure to reduce wages for working people, as we see in casualisation of the workforce.
Francis' attack on this virulent philosophy is not new. You can trace this resolute rejection of earlier forms of 'economic liberalism' through the writings of all the recent popes.
In his attacks on the greed, fraud and corruption in key economic sectors Pope Francis is insisting that the message of Pope Leo applies worldwide.
Social activists guided the popes
Popes do not take such strong positions on contentious social issues on mere whim. Rather, on the advice of experts, they are articulating the