Pope Francis is once again shaking things up in the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, he issued his first “apostolic exhortation,” declaring a new enemy for the Catholic Church: modern capitalism. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” he wrote.

When Matteo Ricci walked the streets of Beijing more than 400 years ago, he was a celebrity. The Jesuit was the first Westerner to enter the gates of the Forbidden City. He impressed the emperor by predicting solar eclipses. He created an enormous map that gave Ming dynasty Chinese a sense of the rest of the world for the first time. He spoke and read Chinese well enough to translate Euclid.

Half a year into his tenure, Pope Francis has proved to be very, very good at generating headlines.

Pope Benedict XVI's sudden abdication of the papacy has far-reaching consequences for world affairs. They extend beyond theological divisions in the Church and thorny liturgical and eschatological issues to a potentially sharpened confessional rivalry between Islamic extremism and Christianity.