2023-06-05 15:45:00
June 5, 2023 / 8:45 a.m.
Pope Francis urged this Monday to reflect on the use of money and on the evil that an “insane” economy does.
“In the passage from the Gospel, when Jesus says that you cannot serve two masters: either you serve God, one Lord, or you serve yourself —and I expected him to say: the devil, but he doesn’t say ‘the devil’— says: ‘to the money’. Either you serve God or you serve money. Worse than the devil”, Pope Francis noted on June 5, when he received the members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation in the Vatican, who are celebrating the 30th anniversary of its creation these days.
“We have to look for what Jesus means by this: there is a message. Either you serve God, or you are a slave to money. You are not free”, the Holy Father added during the audience to the foundation that promotes knowledge of Christian social doctrine and information on the activities of the Holy See among qualified people for their business and professional commitment in society.
“In the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium,” Pope Francis explained, “I wanted to warn about the danger of experiencing the economy in an unhealthy way.”
The Successor of Peter stressed that many of the members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation “work in the economic field.” For this reason, “they know well how beneficial a way of imagining reality that puts the person at the center can be for everyone, that does not underestimate the worker and that seeks to create good for all.”
“No one is saved alone and the rediscovery of fraternity and social friendship is decisive so as not to fall into an individualism that makes one lose the joy of living,” the Pontiff explained.
“For the community to truly become a place where the weak and the voiceless can feel welcomed and heard, what is needed from everyone is that exercise we might call ‘making space.’ Each one withdraws their own ‘ego’ a little” so that “the other exists”, he added.
“But this requires that the foundation of the community be the ethics of the gift and not that of exchange,” he said.
“To think and act in terms of community is to give space to others, it is to imagine and work for a future in which everyone can find their place and have their place in the world. A community that knows how to give a voice to the voiceless is what we all need”, concluded Pope Francis.
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