Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Pope Francis greets the crowd during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 18. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis has blasted employers who do not provide healthcare as bloodsucking leeches and he also took aim at the popular "theology of prosperity" in a pointed sermon on the dangers of wealth on May 19.

Referring to businesses that hire employees on part-time contracts so they don't have to provide health and pension benefits, Francis said that was akin to sucking the blood from their workers' veins, leaving them "to eat air."

“Those who do that are true leeches, and they live by spilling the blood of the people who they make slaves of labor," the pontiff said at morning Mass in the chapel of the Vatican guest house where he lives. Cutting staff during the summer months to avoid providing benefits is a phenomenon in Italy, but the pope said this type of mistreatment and enslavement of workers is happening all over the world.

"We thought that slaves don't exist anymore—they exist," the pope said. "True, people don't go and get them from Africa to sell them in America anymore, no. But they exist in our cities. And there are traffickers, those who use people through work without justice."

From trafficking sex workers to failing to grant vacation to employees, Francis criticized those who seek profit at any price.

“[They are] living on the blood of the people. And this is a mortal sin. This is a mortal sin. And this demands a great deal of penance, a great deal of restitution, in order to be converted from this sin,” the pope said.

Francis also focused attention on the "theology of prosperity" which, as the pope explained, says "God shows that you are good by giving you great wealth."

The so-called prosperity gospel is popular in the U.S., where its preachers are ubiquitous on cable television, and it is a common phenomenon in Latin America, where the Argentine pope is from, and in Africa and Asia. The problem, Francis said in his homily on Thursday, is that "you cannot serve both God and riches" because the love of money becomes "a chain" that makes is impossible to follow Jesus.

Francis took his cue from one of the day's readings for Mass, a fiery passage from the Letter of James about the punishments the rich will suffer for having exploited the poor.

The broad meaning of the pontiff’s homily was summarized with a simple image: “A glass of water in the name of Christ is more important than all the riches accumulated through the exploitation of the people.”

The Argentine pope’s comments continue a theme of his papacy, during which he has tried to create a “poor church” which rejects the idolatry of money. Francis has not only criticized the global financial system in the past, but spoken out about greed and the accumulation of power by Catholic leaders themselves.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Mary Therese LEMANEK
7 years 10 months ago
So many jobs in ministry are part time and all too often the full time benefits are not good. It will be interesting to see how the institutional Church responds.

The latest from america

History has ignored Joanna, as it has most of the other women who followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem and provided for him and the Twelve “from their resources” (Lk 8:2-3).
Robert P. MaloneyMarch 28, 2024
For parishioners at Most Holy Trinity Church in Phoenix, Ariz., dramatizing Christ’s Passion on the Via Crucis is a way of passing on the faith.
J.D. Long GarcíaMarch 28, 2024
During my time as the assistant Catholic chaplain at a state prison, I learned how chaplains must model their ministry to those who are vulnerable in the same spirit as St. Veronica.
Jake TheriotMarch 28, 2024
For me, Communion is holy and very real, a connection to God and to God’s people. As a hospital chaplain, though, my job is to support the spirituality of patients and families right where they are. 
Britt LubyMarch 28, 2024