Money is not the goal, Pope tells business executives

November 17, 2016

“Businesses should not exist to make money,” Pope Francis told an audience of business executives at the Vatican on November 17. “Businesses exist to serve.”

The Pope laid out three themes in an address to participants in a conference on how business leaders can promote social and economic inclusion. He spoke on the proper role of money, the importance of honesty, and the need for solidarity.

Regarding money, the Pope repeated his own phrase that it is “the dung of the devil.” He rejected the idea that money is a neutral tool of exchange. “When one affirms the neutrality of money, they fall into its power,” he said. He decried the fact that in capital markets, those with the most wealth find it easiest to obtain credit, while those in the greatest need are often at the mercy of lenders.

Honesty, the Pope continued, is essential to civil life. “Corruption is the worst social plague,” he said. Corruption, he added, is an indication of idol-worship: the worship of money.

On solidarity, the Pope said that just relationships between workers and managers “should be respected and required by all parties.” He made a point of saying that solidarity calls for the acceptance of immigration as “an important factor of development.”

 

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Further information:

• Restore the social meaning of financial and banking activity, says the Pope to business leaders (Vatican press office)
• Pope to UNIAPAC business execs: ‘Money for service, not to govern’ (Vatican Radio)