Pope Francis: do not confuse the common good with economic prosperity

July 09, 2015

Pope Francis arrived in Bolivia on July 8, the fourth day of his nine-day apostolic journey to South America.

“As a guest and a pilgrim, I have come to confirm the faith of those who believe in the Risen Christ, so that, during our pilgrimage on earth, we believers may be witnesses of his love, leaven for a better world and cooperators in the building of a more just and fraternal society,” he said upon his arrival in La Paz, the nation’s administrative capital.

He continued:

In days to come, I would like to encourage the vocation of Christ’s disciples to share the joy of the Gospel, to be salt for the earth and light to the world. The voice of the bishops, which must be prophetic, speaks to society in the name of the Church, our Mother – for the Church is a mother – and from her preferential, evangelical option for the poor, for the discarded, for the excluded; this is the preferential option of the Church. Fraternal charity, the living expression of the new commandment of Jesus, is expressed in programs, works and institutions which work for the integral development of the person, as well as for the care and protection of those who are most vulnerable. We cannot believe in God the Father without seeing a brother or sister in every person, and we cannot follow Jesus without giving our lives for those for whom he died on the cross.

On his way to the presidential palace, Pope Francis stopped to pray at the site of the death of Father Luis Espinal (1932-80), a Jesuit human rights advocate who was tortured and murdered.

After a visit with President Evo Morales, the Pontiff traveled to the cathedral, where he addressed civil leaders.

“Each of us here shares a calling to work for the common good,” he said. “If politics is dominated by financial speculation, or if the economy is ruled solely by a technocratic and utilitarian paradigm concerned with maximum production, we will not grasp, much less resolve, the great problems of humanity.”

“Without even being conscious of it, we confuse the ‘common good’ with ‘prosperity,’ especially when we are the ones who enjoy that prosperity,” he added. “Prosperity understood only in terms of material wealth has a tendency to become selfish, to defend private interests, to be unconcerned about others, and to give free rein to consumerism.”

The Pontiff touched upon several other themes, including integral ecology, religious freedom, immigration, and the need for Christians to be a leaven.

“The natural environment is closely related to the social, political and economic environment,” he said. “It is urgent for all of us to lay the foundations of an integral ecology, one capable of respecting all these human dimensions in resolving the grave social and environmental issues of our time.”

He also said that solutions to many social problems can be found in family life, rather than in ideologies:

Among the various social groups, I would like to mention in particular the family, which is everywhere threatened by domestic violence, alcoholism, sexism, drug addiction, unemployment, urban unrest, the abandonment of the elderly, and children left to the streets. These problems often meet with pseudo-solutions which show the clear effects of an ideological colonization. So many social problems are quietly resolved in the family; the failure to assist families would leave those who are most vulnerable without protection.

 

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Further information:

• Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay
• Pope Francis: discourse to Bolivian civil authorities (Vatican Radio)