The Pope spoke via video link at the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a group of grassroots organizations and social movements against inequality
Bor Philip Polila (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Saturday he understands that some people, including within the church, consider him a “plague” to defend the poor and the weak, but that won’t stop him from doing so because he is part of Christianity.
“Thinking about these attitudes (of exclusion and inequality), I became a scourge with my problems. And I still wonder. And I ask everyone, in the name of God,” said Francisco, the first pope in Latin America.
He urged pharmaceutical companies to issue patents to make Covid-19 vaccines more available to the poor, noting that only 3% to 4% of the population have been vaccinated in some countries.
Francisco, 84, spoke via video link with the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a group of grassroots organizations and social movements against labor inequality, land tenure and other social issues in the developing world.
He urged industries such as mining and timber to “stop the destruction of forests, wetlands and mountains, stop polluting rivers and seas, and stop poisoning food and people.”
Francisco stated that risky nations and financial institutions should cancel the debts of the poorest nations. Arms makers must stop contributing to the “horrific geopolitical games that have claimed millions of lives and displaced.”
He said tech giants must stop allowing hate speech, fake news, conspiracy theories and political manipulation, and called for a universal basic income and for states to consider eliminating the working day so more people get jobs.
“System, unrelenting in the logic of profit, escapes from human control. It is time to slow down the locomotive, the unruly locomotive that is rushing into the abyss. There is still time,” he said. “So I continue to harass.”
He recalled criticism he had received in the past, especially from conservatives in the Church in the United States, when he made similar appeals.
“Some members of the Church grieve me when we mention these guidelines which belong to the whole tradition of the Church,” he said, referring to a Catholic social teaching book published by Pope John Paul II in 2004.
“The Pope cannot stop mentioning these teachings, even if they often annoy people, because what is at stake is not the Pope, but the Gospel,” he said.
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