- Title: VATICAN/FILE: Pope attacks mega-salaries, big bonuses in peace message
- Date: 12th December 2013
- Summary: VATICAN (DECEMBER 12, 2013) (REUTERS) ST. PETER'S SQUARE WORKERS ON CRANE BY CHRISTMAS TREE TOP OF CHRISTMAS TREE NEXT TO STATUES VARIOUS OF CROWDS IN ST. PETER'S SQUARE VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS AT VATICAN PRESS ROOM / DOCUMENTS BEING HANDED OUT TO JOURNALISTS TEXT ON DOCUMENT READING "MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY
- Embargoed: 27th December 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: International Relations,Politics,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA14K4JH6M6YH5K2QQZ1DSS6AOT
- Story Text: Pope Francis attacked mega-salaries and big bonuses on Thursday (December 12), saying in the first peace message of his pontificate that they are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality.
The admonishment, in his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, was his latest criticism of the world economy. He also called for more sharing of wealth among people and nations to narrow the gap between the rich and poor.
"The grave financial and economic crises of the present time ... have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy," he said in the message.
"The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles," he said.
The message for the World Day of Peace, which is marked by the Church around the world on January 1, is sent to national leaders, international organisations such as the United Nations, and NGOs.
Francis, who was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday (December 11), has urged his own Church to be more fair, frugal and less pompous and to be closer to the poor and suffering.
"This is Pope Francis's first World Day of Peace message and it gave him another opportunity to express his opinions and I would say his concerns about the world economy and the plight of the poor and one of the interesting things he said was, what it seems to be is an attack on mega salaries and big bonuses because he talks about earnings which are way out of proportion to the principles of a sound economy," said Reuters Vatican correspondent Philip Pullella.
"We have to remember that less than a month ago in a papal exhortation which was seen as a kind of a manifesto of his still young papacy he said that capitalism, unbridled capitalism is a new tyranny that is affecting so many people. So we see that the pope is not letting up and is continuing to bang the drum about inequality and how the advanced world has to help the developing world and that poverty, hunger and homelessness are an absolute scandal," Pullella said.
The new pope's style is characterised by frugality. He shunned the spacious papal apartment in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace to live in a small suite in a Vatican guest house, and he prefers a Ford Focus to the traditional pope's Mercedes.
A champion of the downtrodden, he visited the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy in July to pay tribute to hundreds of migrants who had died crossing the sea from North Africa.
His approach was working, said Sister Anna, a nun walking through St. Peter's Square, and appealing to people.
"I think so. You can see it in the square, so many people are coming now. I think little by little something will change and there really will be peace," she said.
Priest Don Alessio Geretti meanwhile said people should look for peace within themselves.
"The peace first of all needs to be inside our hearts and then it will also spread to the society," he said.
Titled "Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway to Peace," the message also attacked injustice, human trafficking, organised crime and the weapons trade as obstacles to peace. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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