OPINION: You can't please everyone

Latin America has embraced Pope Francis, the region's first pontiff, a humble man who once taught literature, a champion of the environment, a crusader for the needs of the poorest and marginalized, and a diplomat able to bring differing sides together. But recently, it has become evident that he can't be everything to everyone.

Through addresses starting with his environmental encyclical last month, and continuing through his just-concluded trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, Francis has begun to alienate some with his explicit criticism of capitalism.

In the encyclical, the Pope said that "global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases... released mainly as a result of human activity." He continued: "It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day." He blamed our plight on "extreme and selective consumerism" and "the present model of distribution."

There was great enthusiasm afterwards, especially in the scientific community; his beautiful words inspired even staunch non-believers.

But what has started to emerge in his speeches and remarks since then is a direct and flat attack on free markets and competition – what he says are at the root of climate change and the destruction of the environment. During his Latin American trip, he called capitalism's greed "the devil's dung," and a "subtle dictatorship" that "condemns and enslaves men and women."

The problem, critics say, is he fails to credit capitalism with any gains in helping to bring people out of poverty and increase wealth. The Pope also fails to look at the complexities inherent to the history, realities and needs of a place like Latin America.

Take a look at Cuba, for example, a country that grew tired of socialism and its oppressive limitations, and has over the last decade gradually opened to the private sector. (The recent rapprochement between the US and Cuba was partly facilitated by the Pope.) Or Venezuela, perhaps the country that has given the strongest shun to global capitalism, where violence is rampant and the country is submerged in spectacular economic collapse.

Moreover, he fails to see that anti-capitalist politics are not inevitably environmentally-friendly. Indeed, they rarely are. Each of the main left-leaning nations in the region – Bolivia (where President Morales gifted the Pope a wooden cross of hammer and sickle during his visit), Ecuador, and especially Venezuela – rely on fossil fuel industries as a main source of national revenue.

Venezuela uses oil as a political tool, shipping heavily subsidized fuel to neighbors it deems ideologically aligned, and essentially gives gasoline away at home: certainly not a very enlightened approach to tackling the great environmental problems of the day. Ecuador, meanwhile, is developing oil in one of the most lush, biodiverse areas known to man: the Yasuní, in the Amazon jungle. And then if we look at Chile, we can see that free markets, with the right regulation in place, can help foster a thriving renewable energy community.

The world is never as clear, or ugly, or simple as the Pope's message. In my case I am, at once, convinced that climate change is man-made; a believer that a regulated free market is the superior system; and a pragmatist who sees that natural resources, developed responsibly and strategically, can help a country mature and become more secure.

Francis says he makes no attempt at policy prescriptions. "Don't expect a recipe from this pope," he said during his trip. "Neither the pope nor the church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social reality or the proposal of solution to contemporary issues. I dare say no recipe exists."

And perhaps that is where his detractors should find reason. Each state, each individual, must develop their own recipe. His central message remains unaltered. We are slowly warming the planet, which will have catastrophic consequences, and we must change.