Is Pope Francis a Marxist?

Abstract Pope Francis has been widely portrayed by the popular media as a ‘revolutionary left-wing’ Pope, owing to his open stance on same-sex relationships and his harsh criticism of capitalism. His South American background has also led the media to casually associate him with the tradition of liberation theology, whose methodology is deeply influenced by Marxism. In this article, I argue that Pope Francis’s public theology is neither a Marxist theology nor a liberation theology, as some critics have suggested. In contrast, his theology is an assemblage of the critical heritage of Catholic social thought, Franciscan theology of the poor, Argentine theology of the people, and Ignatian pastoral theology.