Michael Moore: Pope told me capitalism ‘sin’

By Art Moore

Michael Moore with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez
Michael Moore with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez

Progressive filmmaker Michael Moore claims Pope Francis told him capitalism is a sin and urged Moore to continue making his left-leaning documentaries.

In an interview with NBC’s “Late Night” with Seth Meyers, Moore said he asked the Roman Catholic pontiff about his thoughts on income inequality, CNS News reported.

“It was an amazing moment, and I asked him if I could ask him a question,” Moore said. “And he said, ‘Yes.'”

Pope Francis (Wikimedia Commons)
Pope Francis (Wikimedia Commons)

Moore said he asked: “Do you believe that an economic system that benefits the few, the wealthy at the expense of the many is a sin?”

The pope replied, according to Moore, “Si” in Italian.

Moore said he pressed further for clarity: “So you believe capitalism, the kinda – the capitalism we have now is a sin?”

The pope replied: “Yes, it is. The poor must always come first.”

The filmmaker, who recently released the anti-Trump “Fahrenheit 11/9,” said the pope then grabbed his hand and said, “Please, pray for me.”

Moore said he replied: “I will, and please pray for me. And he said, ‘No, you have to make more movies.’ And I’m like, “‘I just wanted a prayer.’ He’s like, ‘No, you go back to – you go back work.’ He has a sense of humor.”

Hugo and me

Moore, along with a number of other prominent figures in Hollywood, was a big fan of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, whose socialist policies have ruined the once oil-rich country, with more than 2 million having fled catastrophic shortages of food, fresh water, electricity and basic medicines amid record violent crime.

After meeting at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, Moore posted pictures of the two of them together in a tweet.

“Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all,” Moore wrote.

No more successful system

While Moore’s new film “Fahrenheit 9/11” paints a bleak picture of the Trump administration, the president Friday was celebrating new Labor Department statistics showing a decade-high increase in middle- and lower-class wages along with record-low Hispanic and black unemployment.

As many economists have pointed out, including the Foundation for Economic Education, hard statistics show that nothing has done more to lift humanity out of poverty than the market economy.

FEE points out that the number of people worldwide living on less than about $2 per day today is less than half of what it was in 1990.

The biggest gains have occurred in countries that have opened up their markets, such as China and India.

The Daily Wire bullet-pointed five statistics demonstrating that the expansion of free enterprise around the world has reduced poverty:

  • The number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide declined by 80 percent from 1970 to 2006.
  • Mortality rates for children under the age of five declined by 49 percent from 1990 to 2013.
  • Poverty worldwide included 94 percent of the world’s population in 1820. In 2011, it was only 17 percent.
  • Globally, those in the lower and middle income brackets saw increases in pay of 40 percent from 1988 to 2008.
  • The world is 120 times better off today than in 1800 as a result of capitalism.

Art Moore

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book "See Something, Say Nothing," entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He earned a master's degree in communications from Wheaton College. Read more of Art Moore's articles here.


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