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.
By AFP
VATICAN, May 16, 2013 -
Pope Francis has denounced the global financial system, blasting the “cult of money” that he says is tyrannizing the poor and turning humans into expendable consumer goods.
In his first major speech on the subject, Francis demanded Thursday that financial and political leaders reform the global financial system to make it more ethical and concerned for the common good.
Francis, who has made clear the poor are his priority, made the comments as he greeted his first group of new ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.
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.
Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”, in order to provide “for the common good”.
The gap between rich and poor was growing in many developed countries, the Argentinian Pope said, two months after he was elected as the successor to Benedict XVI.
“While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,” said Francis, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires visited slums, opted to live in a modest flat rather than an opulent Church residence and went to work by bus.
In poorer countries, people’s lives were becoming “undignified” and marked by violence and desperation, he said.
Francis made the strongly-worded remarks in his first major speech on finance and the economy, during an address to foreign ambassadors in the Vatican.
It underlined a reputation he has established in the last two months for showing deep concern for the plight of the poor and vulnerable.
“The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal,” Francis told the ambassadors.
As the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, he often spoke out about the plight of the poor during the country’s economic crisis.
Unchecked capitalism had created “a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny”, said the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.
“The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ’s name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them,” he said.
Francis will make the first foreign trip of his papacy to Brazil in July, during which he will visit a slum in Rio de Janeiro and meet young prison inmates.
He will attend World Youth Day, a week-long event which is expected to attract more than two million people.
私たちは、すべての日本国民を保護する責任のある監督官庁に、拉致を終結させ、過去の犯罪について取り組むため、必要な行動を取るよう要請いたします。私 たちは、この真実を明らかにするため、国会に公聴会を開くことを要請いたします。私たちは、過去のおざなりにされたケースの追跡調査のため、司法当局、な らびに警察庁に、独立した内部調査を行うよう要請いたします。私たちは、警察、司法当局が、法律と国際的人権規約に基づき、子供の宗教の自由に関して、何 ができて、何ができないのか、公に発表することを要請いたします。
Jura Nanuk
