Quote for the Day

Responding to a question of whether the capitalist system needs more ethical guidance, or complete restructuring:

Many times various heads of state and political leaders that I had the power to meet after my election as Bishop of Rome have spoken with me of this. They said: You religious leaders must help us; give us ethical indications.

Yes, the pastor can make his calls, but I am convinced that there may be need, like Benedict XVI remembered in the encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” of men and women with their arms raised towards God to pray, aware that love and sharing from which authentic development proceeds, is not a product of our hands, but a gift to be asked.

And at the same time I am convinced that there may be [a] need that these men and these women commit — at every level, in the society, in politics, in economic institutions — [to] putting at the center the common good.

We cannot wait more to resolve the structural causes of poverty, to heal our society from a disease that can only lead to new crises. Markets and financial speculation cannot enjoy absolute autonomy.

Without a solution to the problems of the poor we cannot resolve the problems of the world. They serve programs, mechanisms and processes oriented to a better allocation of resources, creation of work, [and] integral promotion of those who are excluded. -Pope Francis-in an interview  published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.