By
Naomi O'Leary (Reuters)
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Pope Francis: Man
is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules. God our Father did not
give the task of caring for the earth to money, but to us, to men and women: we
have this task! Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit
and consumption: it is the "culture of waste."
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Pope
Francis called for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered
capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty
and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as
pontiff.
The
84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official
platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks
since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.
In
it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic
system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians
to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare".
He
also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment
'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of
human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of
exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the
document issued on Tuesday.
"How
can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of
exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"
The
pope said renewal of the Church could not be put off and said the Vatican and
its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral
conversion".
"I
prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on
the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and
from clinging to its own security," he wrote.
In July, Francis finished an encyclical begun by Pope Benedict but he made
clear that it was largely the work of his predecessor, who resigned in
February.
Called
"Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel), the exhortation is
presented in Francis' simple and warm preaching style, distinct from the more
academic writings of former popes, and stresses the Church's central mission of
preaching "the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus
Christ".
In
it, he reiterated earlier statements that the Church cannot ordain women or
accept abortion. The male-only priesthood, he said, "is not a question
open to discussion" but women must have more influence in Church
leadership.
POVERTY
A
meditation on how to revitalize a Church suffering from encroaching
secularization in Western countries, the exhortation echoed the missionary zeal
more often heard from the evangelical Protestants who have won over many
disaffected Catholics in the pope's native Latin America.
In
it, economic inequality features as one of the issues Francis is most concerned
about, and the 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial
system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to
violence.
"As
long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the
absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the
structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's
problems or, for that matter, to any problems," he wrote.
Denying
this was simple populism, he called for action "beyond a simple welfare
mentality" and added: "I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians
who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of
the poor."
Since
his election, Francis has set an example for austerity in the Church, living in
a Vatican guest house rather than the ornate Apostolic Palace, travelling in a
Ford Focus, and last month suspending a bishop who spent millions of euros on
his luxurious residence.
He
chose to be called "Francis" after the medieval Italian saint of the
same name famed for choosing a life of poverty.
Stressing
cooperation among religions, Francis quoted the late Pope John Paul II's idea
that the papacy might be reshaped to promote closer ties with other Christian
churches and noted lessons Rome could learn from the Orthodox such as
"synodality" or decentralized leadership.
He
praised cooperation with Jews and Muslims and urged Islamic countries to
guarantee their Christian minorities the same religious freedom as Muslims
enjoy in the West.
(Editing
by Tom Heneghan and Alison Williams)
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