Serving the poor, sustaining the system: Vatican's capitalist gospel

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* 

On the evening of 26 June 2026, at 8:30 p.m., the temperature was still 30 degrees Celsius. The air was hot and humid, and the sun was setting behind the Aventine and Vatican hills, casting a majestic glow over St. Peter's Square. Fearless seagulls splashed in the fountains, drinking and bathing without a hint of concern for the all-powerful figures of the Vatican. Young couples were sharing ice creams, visitors busily snapped photos, and security guards kept a vigilant watch over the crowd. 

Local vendors were selling souvenirs and bargaining the price of memorabilia with tourists, while city dwellers made their way home with tired eyes after a long day's work. Young couples were already walking to their dinner destinations. These normal activities make the city lively. Amidst the architectural grandeur of its basilicas, everything in Vatican City State appeared perfectly normal — old, beautiful, eternal, and invincible. Every curated stone and crafted brick seemed to radiate beauty, power, and wealth. There was simply no other way to see them.

Even before darkness fell, there were eight tents. Three had owners sitting outside, while the other five were closed. Four middle-aged men were already asleep, lying only on cardboard. The number of homeless rough sleepers grows later at night. 

These homeless individuals are sleeping under Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Colonnade in St. Peter's Square, in the heart of Vatican City — the citadel of ancient religion and wealth — yet on its very doorstep, the homeless lie. The security police do not harass the homeless here. Instead, the Vatican provides showers and sandwiches, and has transformed the Palazzo Migliori into a free bed-and-breakfast facility, serving as ambassadors of the poor in the name of Jesus.

It seems as though every religion's motto is to serve the poor but not solve poverty. Without the poor, who would build grand yet empty palaces, beautiful churches, temples, mosques, and monuments, as well as statues of gods and goddesses? Who would pray to them? Who would sing songs in their glory? Who would cook for the priests? Who would clean and protect the priests and their palaces? The poor are a necessity. So, create poverty to serve the poor and serve God. Without the poor, who would legitimise religion? Who would buy the sermons of gods, goddesses, and their priests? 

Therefore, create frameworks, policies, and powerful propaganda claiming that the gods and their governments are striving to solve poverty by helping the poor survive within the kingdoms of gods and goddesses. Paradise, however, is for the rich, protected by the power of money — before which even gods and goddesses cannot but surrender to the privileges of monetary might and charity.

Pope Francis, who was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City until his death in 2025, pontificated on the necessity of radically transforming capitalism — but not ending it — despite the fact that capitalism produces all forms of inequality and breeds all forms of exploitation of human beings and nature. He argued for regulated capitalism, insisting that business is a noble vocation. 

The Vatican–business dialogue led by Pope Francis was crucial in founding the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, which was primarily designed by the Henry Jackson Society and supported by the City of London Corporation and the Rothschild family in 2014. The council was designed to promote ideas, policies, and processes aimed at harnessing private sector resources to build a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable form of capitalism.

All forms of capitalist systems — which are fundamentally built upon, survive through, sustain themselves by, and expand via the exploitation of human beings and nature — can never be sustainable, inclusive, or fairer. 

Religious leaders like Pope Francis only provide legitimacy to such a system by cloaking it in lofty ideals. The capitalist system cannot survive if it becomes humane, fair, inclusive, and sustainable. All religions, religious leaders, and their institutions like the Vatican are not merely shock absorbers of capitalism but also the very lifeblood of this exploitative system.

Helping rough sleepers under the Colonnade in St. Peter's Square does not solve the issue of unaffordability and inaccessibility of the housing market for the majority of people in Rome and across Italy. This is a worldwide problem that is growing exponentially. Serving the poor does not solve the problems of poverty. 

It is important to change the conditions that produce homelessness, hunger, and poverty. This means dismantling capitalism, which creates the very conditions of homelessness, poverty, and hunger — while priests and their like enjoy the privileges of praying for and serving the poor. Gods, goddesses, and their priestly agents work together to uphold capitalism, where a few private individuals enjoy life while the global majority struggles every day to survive. Charity is a bribe that capitalists pay to cover their crime of sustaining a criminal system called capitalism. There is, therefore, nothing emancipatory about religion, religious practices, sermons, or charities.

Let the magnificent Vatican architecture survive for many more centuries to tell the stories of human suffering, protected by gods, goddesses, and their capitalist infrastructure — spanning religion, culture, society, politics, and economy. Let people witness empty palaces while homeless people sleep rough within the perimeters of godly homes. 

Let these material and spiritual contradictions develop social, political, scientific, secular, and collective consciousness — where no human being exploits another in the name of God, religion, or the fictitious American dream of lonely individual freedom. Let human connections, solidarity, happiness, peace, and prosperity guide political and revolutionary actions toward a world with a better tomorrow.

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*Academic based in UK