Pope Francis addressed capitalism during his morning mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday. The Pope issued subjects such as health care, retirement, and vacation benefits while talking about ‘bloodsucking’ employers.
Stating that business owners that provide their employees with only part-time contracts were, in fact, exploiting the poor to benefit their wealthiness, living on their blood and leaving employers to ‘eat air’.
Referring to workers as modern day slaves that work for big businesses that take advantages of their work and don’t provide workers with the pertinent benefits.
“We thought that slaves don’t exist anymore, they exist. It is true that people don’t go and get them from Africa to sell them in America anymore, no. But they exist in our cities and are traffickers those who use people through work without justice,” said Pope Francis to the crowd.
The Pope addressed the ‘theology of prosperity” as a way to accumulate wealth by exploiting working people.
Pope Francis and the poor
Pope Francis has defended the rights of the poor since his beginnings at the Vatican, defending the dialogue between poor and rich in a direct manner, being catalogued as humanitarian and humble.
The argentine Pope is known for favoring simple wardrobe and refusing to wear royal clothes such as the traditional papal mozzetta, he also chose silver over gold for his piscatory ring and wears the same cross he used when he was a cardinal.
Pope Francis has been considered as a more open pope that discusses subjects such as homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, celibacy and contraception with a more open perspective in the Christian church.
Although Pope Francis has not been a defendant for capitalism nor marxism, he has stated his beliefs when it comes to job benefits such as healthcare and retirement benefits.
“They are living on the blood of the people and this is a mortal sin and this demands a great deal of penance, a great deal of restitution, in order to be converted from this sin,” said Pope Francis.
The statements contained a brief story of a young girl who sought the pope for help, explaining her story in a working shift that lasted 11 hours for 650 euros a month, an under the table job she could lose at any moment. The pope explained this business owner had exploited their workers and “grew fat on their riches”.
A brief of the Pope’s reading was part of the Letter of James that explains the punishments for the rich that exploit the working class without benefits.
The Pope’s statements about capitalism and exploiting business have formed his speech into creating a “poor church” that defends rights in equal ways.
Source: Vatican Radio