Remember the poor, Pope exhorts world economic leaders

January 20, 2016

Pope Francis stressed the moral obligation of the affluent to care for those in need, in a January 20 message to the World Economic Forum.

The Pope’s message to the forum-- which gathers over 2,500 political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland—urges participants to “seek to help those poorer than yourselves to attain dignified living conditions.”

The Pope warns that affluence can numb people, to the extent that they no longer find themselves “feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor.” Quoting his own bull of indiction for the Jubilee Year, urged the wealthy: “Make their cry become your own and together may we break down the barriers of indifference that too often reign supreme and mask our hypocrisy and egoism!”

The economic world today is experiencing a “fourth industrial revolution,” with the development of robotics, the Pope continued. He said that leaders should be careful that innovation “does not lead to the destruction of the human person—to be replaced by a soulless machine—or to the transformation of our planet into an empty garden for the enjoyment of a chosen few.”

 

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Further information:

• Pope to World Economic Forum: 'Do not forget the poor!' (Vatican Radio)