Quote:
Pope Francis
has called for a global economic system that puts people and not "an idol
called money" at its heart, drawing on the hardship of his immigrant
family as he sympathised with unemployed workers in a part of Italy that has
suffered greatly from the recession.
Addressing
about 20,000 people in the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, the Argentinian
pontiff said that his parents had "lost everything" after they
emigrated from Italy and that he understood the suffering that came from
joblessness.
"Where
there is no work, there is no dignity," he said, in ad-libbed remarks
after listening to three locals, including an unemployed worker who spoke of
how joblessness "weakens the spirit". But the problem went far beyond
the Italian island, said Francis, who has called for wholesale reform of the financial
system.
"This
is not just a problem of Sardinia; it is not just a problem of Italy or of some
countries in Europe," he said. "It is the consequence of a global
choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system
which has at its centre an idol called money."
The
76-year-old said that God had wanted men and women to be at the heart of the
world. "But now, in this ethics-less system, there is an idol at the
centre and the world has become the idolater of this 'money-god'," he
added.
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