Pope calls for end to money ‘tyranny’ in exhortation
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) – Vatican City, November 26 – Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, a manifesto for his papacy, was published Tuesday calling for a more just world where money is treated as a tool and not a “tyrant” that governs life.
The “Evangelii Gaudium”, or The Joy of the Gospel, has been described by Vatican watchers as a powerful, pragmatic document, infused with spirituality and humanity. In the 224-page exhortation the pope, who has said he wants a “poor Church”, demanded “financial reform that does not ignore ethics” and a “vigorous change of attitude from political leaders, whom I call on to face this challenge with determination and long-sightedness”.
The exhortation, which touches on themes from peace and social justice to family values, faith and politics also weighed in on the role of financial markets.
There, Francis warned that “money must serve and not govern” and said it was necessary to “listen to the cries of the poor” via greater social dialogue and social inclusion. In the document, Francis denounced the global economic system as “unjust at its root,” because it has been based on a “tyranny” of the marketplace dominated by financial speculation, widespread corruption and tax evasion. “Such an economy kills” because the law of “the survival of the fittest,” prevails, according to the pope. At the same time, Francis appealed in the document to individuals to bring about a “revolution of tenderness” by opening their hearts to God’s love and forgiveness on a daily basis.
He also repeated his call for the Church to move beyond small concerns with liturgy and doctrine, procedure and prestige. “God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings!” Francis said that a “sound decentralization” is necessary and as part of a renewal, the Church should not be afraid to re-examine “certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some of which have deep historical roots”. He urged greater compassion and care for the weakest members of society including “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned”.
As well, the pope returned to another of his favourite themes, better care of migrants, urging that they be treated with “a generous openness”. During the past summer, Francis made a high-profile visit to Italy’s Lampedusa island and its seriously overcrowded refugee centre, which is on the front lines of waves of migrants fleeing to Europe in the hope of peace and a better life.
Some 400 African migrants drowned in two separate shipwrecks just off the island in October.
In his exhortation, the pope also defended the Catholic Church’s stance against abortion.
“The defence of unborn life is intimately linked to the defence of any human right,” the pope said in the document. “It is not something ideological, obscurantist or conservative”.
Another crucial human right is peace, said Francis who called for a society based on four key principles which he said are necessary to obtain “peace, justice and fraternity”.
These will require work carried out “slowly but surely, without being obsessed with immediate results” in order to obtain unity rather than conflict; reality over impractical ideas; action over rhetoric; and cooperative work at the local and global levels.
Francis also urged continued dialogue and peace between different faiths including Islam and Christianity.