The role of American politics and politicians is to defend the Constitution. And the essence of that Constitution is to control the powers of government while protecting the "unalienable rights" described in the Declaration of Independence.
But according to a prominent Catholic sister, the Pope has a very different view, which she clearly seems to share. Appearing on MSNBC's Up With Steve Kornacki today, Sister Simone Campbell said that Pope Francis in his encyclical was very clear. Rather than the role of politics being to control government, he believes that the role of politics is "to control the economy . . . and provide an appropriate bound on free market capitalism."