Senator Bernie Sanders is swiftly becoming a favorite among many due to his stance against wealth and income equality. On Sunday, Sanders praised Pope Francis for his critique of corruption and greed during a segment on CBS’ Face the Nation.

Bernie Sanders told CBS host John Dickerson that Pope Francis’ condemnation of crony capitalism has made him a “great fan” of the Argentine Pope.

“I am a great fan of Pope Francis.”

Recently, Pope Francis spoke out against world leaders that ignore their moral obligation to the poor.

“Putting bread on the table, putting a roof over the heads of one’s children, giving them health and an education, these are essential for human dignity.”

These are words similar to the message and ideology of Senator Bernie Sanders’ political platform.

“In terms of wealth and income inequality, he talks about all over the world, for example, we are ignoring the needs of senior citizens who often in our country and around the world, are lonely, don’t have the money they need for medicine or to heat their homes or to eat — buy the food that they need to survive.”

Sanders’ continues to explain that childhood poverty and youth unemployment has sky rocketed in the United States.

“He has talked about an issue that I have talked about a lot, and that is young people around the world, in our country today, we have youth unemployment for white kids who graduate high school at 33 percent; Hispanic kids: 36 percent; African-American kids: 51 percent. And what the pope is saying, there’s something wrong internationally, where almost all of the new wealth in this world is going to people on the top and so many other people are falling by the wayside.”

Senator Bernie Sanders is enjoying rapid growth in popularity since announcing his presidential campaign. His surge, unlike many other politicians, can be attributed to his left-leaning social policies.

“Money cannot be the God of life. We have got to look at our kids, look at those people who are hurting. We’ve got to come together to create a new world. And not a world in which a handful of people have so much wealth and so many other people are suffering.”

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]