Pope Francis warned
against the "endemic and systematic increase in inequality and
exploitation of the planet" during an audience at the Pontifical
Academy of Social Sciences on Friday.
This, he said, "is greater than the rise in income and
wealth".
"Yet inequality and exploitation are not acts of fate and nor
are they constant throughout history," Francis continued.
"They depend … on the economic rules that a society decides
to give itself," he said.
When the logic of profit prevails, "democracy tends to become
a plutocracy in which inequality and exploitation of the planet
grow".
"We need to free ourselves from the pressures of the public
and private lobbies that defend sectoral interests and also to
overcome forms of spiritual laziness," the pope went on.
"Political action really needs to be in the service of
people, the common good and respect for nature."
In this respect, the market also needs to be "civilised".
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