In writ­ing about the joy of the gospel, Pope Fran­cis over­looked some very good news – about mar­kets, about com­pas­sion, about poverty.

His first encycli­cal (Evan­gelii Gaudi­um, “The Joy of The Gospel”) has drawn atten­tion less for its focus on mis­sions than for its eco­nom­ic pro­nounce­ments. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma favor­ably cit­ed the doc­u­ment in his recent remarks on eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty, while some con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors have offered up harsh crit­i­cisms. Con­tin­ue read­ing →