Pope: ‘Money must serve, not rule’

By Joseph Tulloch

THE Pontifical Centesimus Annus Pro Foundation was created by Pope John Paul II in 1993, in collaboration with lay Catholics from business and academia. It aims to promote Catholic social teaching and apply it in different sectors of society.

Over the past two years, the foundation has led a dialogue between finance, culture and religion in the Italian financial hub of Milan.

A vital dialogue

This undertaking is “not easy,” but manageable, Pope Francis said Monday during an audience at the Vatican with representatives of the Foundation.

The Pope said he saw the dialogue initiated by Centesimus Annus with financial representatives as having great potential.

“The work you have done in Milan is encouraging,” he said, “and it could be beneficial to extend it to other financial centers, promoting a model of dialogue that spreads and promotes change paradigm”.

“The technocratic paradigm still dominates,” he stressed: “we need a new culture capable of creating space for strong ethics, culture and spirituality. »

The Pope addresses the participants

Efficiency and ethics

Pope Francis urged the Foundation to “pursue and disseminate this method and style.” Dialogue is “always the best way,” he said.

The Pope said he was impressed by the Foundation's approach of integrating economic with ethical objectives in discussions with senior financial leaders.

“You have set yourself a noble task,” he told his guests: “to combine effectiveness and efficiency with sustainability, holistic integration and ethics.”

Expertise needed

For the social doctrine of the Church to serve as a “compass” in this area, it is “necessary not only to warn but to understand the functioning of finance, to identify weaknesses and to propose concrete corrective measures”, underlined the Pope.

Historical examples show, he continued, that religious leaders can credibly advise the economy only when they know what they are talking about.

The Pope cited the example of 16th-century theologians who, faced with the growth of the wool trade in Spain and its financial benefits, demanded economic justice for sheep breeders and wool producers and proposed reforms concrete.

“Spanish theologians were able to intervene,” he says, “because they knew this process, and that is why they were not content with saying: “we must seek the common good”; they explained what was wrong and called for specific actions.

A mission

“You understand financial processes, and that is your great advantage, but also an important responsibility,” Pope Francis told his visitors.

“It’s up to you to find ways to reduce injustice… Money should serve, not rule.”

This is a vital task, the Pope underlined: “At stake is the fate of the poorest, of those who struggle to find the means to live with dignity.”