Pope Francis Attacks The Economy: Money is 'Dishonest Wealth'
Pontiff addresses crowd at Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican
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Pope Francis voiced his criticisms of the economy while speaking in Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sunday.
The Pontiff described money as “dishonest wealth,” also known as “the devil’s dung.”
The Catholic leader then told tens of thousands of pilgrims and visitors to beware of riches while referring to the gospel reading of the day.
“The key to understanding this story lies in Jesus’ invitation at the end of the parable,” the pope said.
“‘I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.’”
“This seems a bit confusing, but it is not,” he added.
“‘Dishonest wealth’ is money, also called ‘the devil’s dung,’ and in general, material goods.”
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“Wealth can drive people to erect walls, create divisions, and discriminate,” Francis added.
“Jesus, on the contrary, invites his disciples to change course: ‘Make friends with riches,’” he said.
“It is an invitation to learn how to transform goods and riches into relationships, because people are worth more than things and count more than the wealth they possess.”
But this is not the first time Francis had spoken negatively about money, or even for the reference to “the devil’s dung,” a quotation from Saint Basil the Great.
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In an address to the Italian Confederation of Cooperatives in 2015, Francis said:
“It is not easy to talk about money,” he said.
“Money is the devil’s dung of the devil! When money becomes an idol, it rules over a person’s choices. And then it ruins a person and condemns him, turning him into a slave.”
The Pope called for “creative imagination” to combat he “culture of waste,” in which the world is immersed, “fueled by the powers that govern the economic and financial policies of the globalized world, whose center is the god of money.”
In a September 2013 homily, the pope used similar expressions.
“Money becomes an idol, and you worship it. This is why Jesus tells us: ‘You cannot serve the idol of money and the living God.’ Either one or the other.”
Francis called money “the devil’s dung,” declaring “it turns us into idolaters, sickens our mind with pride and makes us enthusiasts of frivolous things that pull us away from the faith.”
