Iniquitas radix malorum: The Pope's tweet is a variation on a familiar theme

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 28, 2014

Today’s comment on the Pope’s Twitter account has economists all excited. In the English-language version, the comment is: “Inequality is the root of social evil.”

That’s a fairly radical statement, as an a piece of economic analysis a very simplistic one. But before economic conservatives go off on a tear about the Pope’s naivete, let’s take a closer look at what he—or someone representing him-- said.

We don’t know who actually post items on the papal Twitter account, but it’s probably not the Pope himself. Moreover, Pope Francis does not write in English, so we can be sure those aren’t his exact words.

The Latin version of this tweet is even simpler: Iniquitas radix malorum. That phrase has a somewhat different meaning.

Iniquitas can be translated as “inequality,” it’s true. But it also can mean “iniquity” or “injustice,” and in this context either word would make more sense. The same would seem true of the word L’inequita used in the Italian version, which the Pope himself could have written. The Spanish tweet ( desigualdad) admittedly looks more like the English.

(The English version refers to “social evil,” whereas the Latin (malorum) speaks only of “evil” without any modifier. But the Italian (mali sociali) and Spanish (males sociales) match the English, so let’s assume this probably—probably—isn’t simply the translator’s addition.)

However it’s translated, the tweet is an obvious reference to the familiar phrase that “the love of money is the root of all evils.” (Radix malorum est cupiditas) If you assume that the love of money leads to iniquities—and, yes, fosters inequality—then Pope Francis (or his ghost-writer) is making a well-known point in a different way. That's kinda the purpose of Twitter, isn't it?

If the papal tweet had simply read: “1 Tim 6:10,” the message would have been the same.