Pope Francis: the accumulation of wealth is a vice

Pope Francis gave an extensive speech on September 20 at the San Calixto Palace in Rome to the participants in the meeting organized by Popular Meetingsa movement whose goal is “social change.”

The event was also promoted by the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development to commemorate ten years since the first meeting with the Pontiff.

At the beginning of his speechthe Holy Father asked for forgiveness for “speaking a lot about the poor and little about the middle class” and specified that, “when the Pope speaks, he speaks for everyone because the Church is for everyone.”

“But it cannot be removed from the centrality of the poor in the Gospel. And this is not communism, it is pure Gospel,” he warned.

Although he recognized the contribution of businessmen to development, he also highlighted that wealth is not distributed equitably, which causes violence and desolation.

He expressed his agreement with the “billionaires” paying more taxes and assured that he prays “that the economically powerful emerge from isolation, reject the false security of money and open themselves to sharing goods that have a universal destiny because they all derive from Creation.” .

Likewise, he warned about corruption and greed and urged the “rich” to share their assets “fraternally.”

“I do see one thing that worries me: that a perverse way of seeing reality is advancing, a way that exalts the accumulation of wealth as if it were a virtue. I tell you: it is not a virtue, it is a vice. Riches are for sharing, for creating, for fraternizing,” the Pontiff stated.

He also stressed that sometimes “great fortunes have little to do with merit: they are income, they are inheritances, they are the result of the exploitation of people and the plundering of nature, they are the product of financial speculation or tax evasion, they derive from corruption or organized crime.”

He reiterated that social justice is linked to “compassion and love” and lamented the problem of drug trafficking, calling to confront it with public policies and community work.

“With the black veil of heartbreak, we always fall into some form of ‘social Darwinism’. And do you know what that is? Social Darwinism is the law of the fittest, which justifies first indifference, then cruelty and, finally, extermination. And that always comes from the Evil One,” he stated.

The Pontiff later warned about the danger of gambling online and the misuse of networks. He pointed out that these practices “destroy entire families” and asked to work to prevent networks from being used “to spread gambling addiction, child pornography or facilitate organized crime.”

Finally, he noted, he cited “material and ideological colonialism,” which destroys “natural resources” and also “the cultural identity of the people.”

Pope Francis’ “viral” phrase about wealth

One of his phrases taken from his speech was published on his official X profile, formerly known as Twitter, and stood out especially as it received a significantly higher number of comments and views than usual.

The Holy Father currently has more than 18 million followers on this social network and his messages generate thousands of reactions daily.

“The accumulation of wealth is exalted today as if it were a virtue. But wealth is to be shared, to fraternize,” wrote the Holy Father.

This publication currently has 40 thousand likes or “I like it”; 14 thousand people have commented; It has been “retweeted” 12 thousand times; saved 40 thousand; and has reached 5.3 million users.