ERASMUS wouldn't normally devote two postings in a row to the same person, even the world's most important Christian leader. But this has been a big week for Pope Francis. On Monday, he met the president of Russia; the following day (though the events are not connected) he issued the most important pastoral pronouncement of his papacy, a document running to over 80 pages entitled Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel. In many ways, this document will affirm the Argentine pope's reputation as a warm, compassionate figure, with a keen but understanding eye for human failing, who defies easy categorisation. He reaffirms the church's "particular love and concern" for unborn children, but insists that this position is "closely linked to the defence of every other human right." His stress on the "joyful proclamation" of the Christian faith will reassure people inside the church who were starting to fear that the pope was slightly too busy sending emollient messages to those far outside the church, from aggrieved gays to atheist journalists. His style of churchmanship still seems to transcend the familiar distinction between liberal and conservative.

But the same cannot be said about the sections of the document which deal with global economics. In these sections, the ideological position is clear. The passages reflect a particular school of left-wing thought, and they are full of left-wing insights and left-wing blind spots. If they had been written five or six years ago, when the global economy was still galloping along, these passages would have seemed prophetic; published now, they seem a bit stale and one-dimensional. For example, he writes:

Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably bring about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.

Well, if there are such people, of course they are overstating the case. The whole point about a properly functioning market is that no specific outcome is inevitable, and no winners are pre-determined. Markets should create possibilities, within which moral choices can be made, not iron certainties. Nor do "those wielding economic power" enjoy any permanency of tenure, if the market is operating well. They are perpetually challenged to prove their competence.

As is pointed out by Philip Booth, an economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a pro-market think-tank, the critique of capitalism in the papal exhortation is often heard among people "who have experience of the highly regulated, state-controlled pseudo-capitalist systems of South America." But surely there are other varieties of capitalism, whose merits and failings would be worth examining. And whatever makes the more rigid, fossilised economies of the Latin world (where a lot of Catholic thinking is done) into impossible places for young people to make a living, it is certainly not an excess of free-market ideology.

Nobody can disagree with the pope's passionate and heart-felt appeals to remember the people who are "excluded" from the mainstream of social and economic life. But it's also worth recalling that no political system on earth can guarantee the avoidance of "exclusion" in the sense he means, except a totalitarian one, and that is a far worse alternative. Totalitarian regimes, like that of North Korea, do not exclude or forget anybody. They have plans for all their subjects: hard work at low wages for some, death for perceived enemies of the people.

Pope Francis is also right to warn people against "sacralising" an economic system or indeed money itself. But some of the harshest modern tyrannies have been those which concentrate political and economic power so tightly that money does not even circulate in any meaningful, autonomous way. Yes, sacralising any system is bad, precisely because it can render meaningless the values which religious and ethical systems proclaim. But excessively demonising a system can be pretty bad too, especially if it tempts you to sacralise an even worse alternative. Human welfare is determined by moral choices as well as systems, and that is precisely the point which the best parts of this papal document make.

Update: our economics blog has offered a different take on the pope's views. It can be read here