"And that is what the disciples did: receiving mercy, they, in turn, became merciful. We see this in the first reading. The Acts of the Apostles relate that "no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common" (4:32). This is not communism, but pure Christianity," Pope Francis said.

But there is a big problem: communism is not about sharing, but about an authoritarian state taking away people's private property by force, or in the socialism we see more widely practiced in the world, through laws.

Eventually, the government owns all the resources and keeps the population as slaves, and above all, the communist elite get disproportionately wealthy while the people get poorer.

But perhaps the Pope is not confused.