Papal Exhortation: Feedback to comments on socio-economic issues

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation continues to generate analysis and comment throughout the world’s media. Some of the Pope’s most forthright language in this newly-released document was used in his comments on the challenges and problems of our modern world, especially the current economic system and the plight of those people who are discarded on the margins of society.

Dr Anna Rowlands is a Catholic and Lecturer in Theology and Ministry at King’s College in London. She spoke to Susy Hodges about how this Exhortation has been widely reported on by the secular media, especially those sections where the Pope speaks very frankly about these socio-economic ills.

Listen to the full interview with Dr Anna Rowlands:

Rowlands says the Exhortation helps us to understand the context in which we're evangelising and she points out the "forthright language" used by the Pope in the document, particularly in the sections dealing with consumption and our "throw-away" society. "Noting that the Pope uses the phrase "an economy which kills" she describes this as "very strong language" for a papal document. Rowlands went on to describe how the Pope's Exhortation has received wide coverage in the secular media: "Whole sections have been quoted by people who would never normally comment on a papal document," she says.

With this document, Rowlands believes that Pope Francis has shone a light on some of the glaring inequalities and injustices of our contemporary society and the pain this inflicts on humans. "The Pope has put his pulse on what it means to be human at the moment."