Pope Francis: The Antidote to Populism Is ‘a Politics of Brotherhood’
ROME — Pope Francis criticized populism as “political paternalism” Thursday, asserting it deprives the people of self-rule.
Populism — consciously or unconsciously — follows the inspiration of the motto: “Everything for the people, nothing with the people,” or “political paternalism,” the pope declared in a video message transmitted to participants in an international conference on “A Politics Rooted in the People.”
“Hence, in the populist vision, the people are not the agents of their own destiny, but end up being indebted to an ideology,” the pontiff said.
The “true response to the boom of populism is not precisely more individualism but its opposite: a politics of brotherhood, rooted in the life of the people,” he added.