Pope Francis urges global leaders to end 'tyranny' of money
Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”,
in order to provide “for the common good”.
Reuters
Pope Francis has attacked the “dictatorship” of the global financial system and warned that the “cult of money” was making life a misery for millions.
Pope Francis has called on world leaders to put an end to the "cult of money"
Money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them, he said, calling for a more ethical financial system and curbs on financial speculation.
Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”, in order to provide “for the common good”.
He said free-market capitalism had created a “tyranny” and that human beings were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.
Money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them, he said, calling for a more ethical financial system and curbs on financial speculation.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the speech was intended to draw the world’s attention to social justice and the needs of the poor amid the financial crises.
In the speech, the pope singled out for criticism policies which are based on a “gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to one of his needs alone, namely, consumption.”
“We have begun this culture of disposal,” he said, in which people themselves are “considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away,” while a minority of people accumulate “exponentially” increasing wealth while income “is crumbling” for the majority.
The pope blamed that on “ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to states, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good.” He said inadequate regulation has resulted in “a new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny … one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules.”
“Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life,” he said, quoting St. John Chrysostom. “It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs.”
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