One is dead and likely to be proclaimed a saint at some time, and the other is alive and performing miracles now. They both come from the same country. One was a Pope, the other is a politician.

On matters of economics one was wrong, and one was right. On matters of theology who’s to question a Pope? But I think the politician (who, though a Christian, is toying with converting to Judaism) may actually have the edge.

I’m referring of course to the late ‘great’ Pope Francis, whose funeral and the following conclave have attracted huge secular interest, and the President of Argentina, his home country, Javier Milei.

If Francis is to become a saint, he has to produce two miracles…after his death. Milei is already well on the way to more than two miracles, well-before his death.

I’d say the first miracle is winning the Argentinian presidential election. Argentina has been suffering the depredations of government interventionism and left-wing populism for the best part of 100 years.

In 1913 it was the 10th richest country per capita in the world. Today it stands at around 71st – a tribute to the definition of madness being repeating the same thing and expecting a different result.

But miraculously the country is at least temporarily sane.

The second miracle is that the Argentinian President’s party controls only 40 seats out of the 257 in the Chamber of Deputies and only 7 out of 72 in the Senate, yet he’s made significant progress in liberalising the economy.

And his support seems to be growing if the latest local elections in Buenos Aires are anything to go by, with Milie’s La Libertad Avanza topping the poll, albeit at the cost of the centre right party Republican Proposal.

This is despite an austerity regime said to be causing widespread misery. Or maybe not.

Which is where the second miracle occurs.

The nation’s statistics bureau INDEC released results on Monday showing that under Milei poverty had dropped by almost 15 points from the preceding half year to 38.1 per cent. It doesn’t take long for market incentives to cut in.

It’s not the first time his policies have had an almost miraculous effect. When he removed rent caps, rentals in Buenos Aires actually dropped by 20-30 per cent and rental listings increased 50 per cent. The poor were cheering that too.

With results like these, why do so many prominent Christians brand the policies and the politicians that implement them as ‘heartless’?

The answer is in the confusion at the heart of contemporary Christianity that has given us Wokeness.

If love is the pre-eminent force in the cosmos, and Christians are called to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, then not just the downtrodden, but anyone less fortunate than oneself, has to be embraced and elevated.

Unless, of course, one can squeeze into one of the categories of marginalisation, and then happy days, you become the recipient of all that love.

It’s often said that if Jesus were alive today he’d be a socialist. That’s wrong. At the heart of socialism is redistribution and that requires coercion.

But at the heart of Christianity is free choice. You can choose well, or poorly, but that choice is yours.

When people can act freely, they make better decisions for themselves than people who are controlled – the Catholic church even has a much-neglected doctrine for this called subsidiarity.

Jesus was also the preeminent cutter of red tape and rules and regulations, reducing the 613 laws that a strict Jew was supposed to keep to just 2 – love God, and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

There is no justification in Jesus’ words or deeds for expropriation – you are the one who is supposed to love your neighbour and it is not a duty you can transfer via taxation to anyone else.

Indeed, the issue of forced charity only really arises once when the woman, traditionally thought to be Mary Magdalene, breaks a bottle of perfume and pours it over Jesus’ feet before wiping it away with her hair.

Judas is scandalised, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ Jesus responds, ‘You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.’

In other words, let her choose for herself, not have others choose for her, and there are other things due attention rather than just the poor.

I’m musing about these things because not only do we have a suddenly Pope-friendly society, but our Prime Minister went to pay his respects to the new Pope in Rome last Sunday as the Pope was enthroned.

Perhaps the Prime Minister turned his mind to things spiritual over the time of his trip, so I thought I might point out a few things he might have missed.

There is no doubt that Australia is currently pursuing the Peronist path that was so disastrous for Argentina but apparently supported by Francis, who the world sees as good.

And it is a common error to mistake good intentions for good outcomes and for authority to be thought to be authoritative.

Just because Francis was the Pope, and undoubtedly meant well, does not mean he was right.

Labor under Albanese is full of good intentions, and really bad outcomes. Albo could do with a pilgrimage to Argentina and seeing where the real miracles are.

Speaking of miracles, a close study of Argentina could also put some steel into the Coalition. Newly elected leader Sussan Ley says they have to meet modern Australians where they are.

What Javier Milei is demonstrating is that it is not where your electors are that you meet them – it is where their needs are.

Seven straight quarters of negative growth is where Australians are, but it is not where they need to be.

Milei was barely given a chance of winning because of his aggressive style, but the truth set the electorate free.

You have to have the courage of your convictions to show them the way. If the Liberals and Nationals can learn that, miracles are possible.

If not, it seems entirely possible that a party will arise from nowhere that will, marginalising it as Milei has done to Republican Proposal, and Reform appears to be doing to the Conservatives.

Disastrous electoral results and coalition splits may be the least of their problems.