Upon This Rock

Pope Francis was elected in 2013. As the first Jesuit pope, Francis brought to the papacy the agenda of social justice observed in Jesuit works across the globe. Pope Francis inherited scandals from the reassignment of pedophile priests in Boston to the abuse and neglect of unwed mothers, children and orphans at the Church-run Magdalene laundries in Ireland. But the one institution which no pope had ever been able to reign in was the Vatican Bank. Today Pope Francis is revered as an enlightened patriarch with an interest in climate change. When American company Solyndra, marketing "green" technologies to generate power, failed, the federal government more closely scrutinized companies before underwriting their ventures. Since the election of Pope Francis their solicitations for investors have been favorably received by the Vatican Bank. But, in today's energy market, the Vatican's funding of American green energy has taken place at the expense of the oil-rich Middle Eastern emirates. In underwriting American companies the Vatican Bank has chosen sides, pitting American clean energy advocates and the oil-producing nations of the Middle East against one another.