Pope Francisco in Spanish press interview: “Economic systems should centre on humans, not on making money”

AN EXCLUSIVE interview given to a Catalunya regional newspaper by Pope Francisco calls for a complete overhaul of the current economic system, says society is too busy 'worshipping money' to care about its people, and shows he is dead against the area's independence from Spain.

“The secession of a nation without a previous history of forced union is something that should be analysed carefully from every angle,” the Pontiff stated in the interview in La Vanguardia.

He was referring to Scotland as well as Catalunya when he said: “Any division worries me,” and added that there is a great difference between 'independence through emancipation' and 'independence through secession'.

The former, the Pope explained, include the American countries which gained independence from their European colonisers – such as his own native land, Argentina – but the latter, for which he uses the former Yugoslav republic as an example, lead to 'fragmentation' which 'at times is very obvious'.

“Clearly, there are communities with such diverse cultures that not even glue would bind them together – the Yugoslavia case is very much like this, but I wonder if it is so in other communities which have always been together until now,” Pope Francisco commented.

“Scotland, Catalunya, Padania should be analysed one by one – there may be cases where a secession is fair and others where it is not fair.”

Turning to the poor financial state of affairs in Europe and beyond, the Pontiff stated: “The world economic system is not working.”

“We have fallen into the sin of idolising money,” the Pope lamented.

“The economy moves through the desire to always want more, but paradoxically, it is feeding a culture of waste.

“This, from a Christian point of view, is intolerable – a system where you have to wage war just to survive.”

The Pope criticised the fact that a whole generation of young adults were being left by the wayside with no future, that large companies and governments were 'only concerned about making more money' and that the needs of ordinary people were overlooked in this relentless pursuit.

“All economic systems should be centred exclusively on men and women, and everything else should be at the service of man [the human race].

“But instead we are centring the system on money, on the god 'Money'.

“And yet with all the food in the world that goes to waste, we could feed everyone who is hungry,” slammed the Catholic Church leader.

Pope Francisco also commented on fundamentalist violence, and said maiming and killing 'in God's name' is 'rather old-fashioned'.

“Violence in the name of God does not belong in our time – yes, we Christians have practised this, like in the Thirty Years' War, but violence in God's name today is unthinkable.

“All three religions [referring to branches of Christianity] have their fundamentalist groups, but they are very much a minority compared to the rest of us.”

The Pope wholeheartedly condemned extremism, saying, “even if they don't kill anyone, even if they don't hit anyone, fundamentalism is violent. Its very mental structure is violence in the name of God.”

Pope Francisco is well-known for his self-imposed austerity measures, living in a small apartment in the Vatican and on minimal expense.

Additionally, he is becoming famous for rejecting protocol, such as refusing to ride around in the Popemobile because it has glass windows that 'separate him from the public'.

“I want to be able to greet and talk to the people on the street in person, not from behind glass windows,” the Pontiff states.

“I realise it's for safety reasons, but at my age, do I really need to be worrying about all that?”