Corruption is even in the Vatican -Pope Francis.
December 1, 2015 ·
Speaking in a church surrounded by corrugated cardboard homes in a moving visit to one of the notorious and long-lasting slum neighborhoods here, Pope Francis on Friday cried out against a global economic system that he said gives a wealthy minority license to let the majority suffer poverty.
In a second meeting later in the day with Kenyan young people, the pontiff also poignantly spoke out against societal and personal corruption — saying it exists “including in the Vatican” and eats away at our values like poison in our blood. The pope first met with some of the estimated 100,000 people who live in Nairobi’s Kangemi slum. He identified with their concrete struggles, thanked them for the witness they give the world, and intensely called on Christians to do something about the vast numbers of people in need.
Opening his short but powerful talk to people in Kangemi, the pope said he felt a need to visit them “because I want you to know that your joys and hopes, your troubles and your sorrows, are not indifferent to me.” “I realize the difficulties which you experience daily!” he cried out. “How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?”
“Corruption is something that eats from the inside,” said the pope. “It’s like sugar. It’s easy. We like it. And then we end up in a bad way.” “So much sugar we either end up being diabetic or our country ends up being diabetic,” he said. “Every time we accept a bribe and we put it in our pockets we destroy our hearts, we destroy our personalities and we destroy our country.” “Please, don’t develop that taste for that sugar that is called corruption,” he asked.
The pope also called on the young people to seek out friends who may be lonely in order to stop them from making decisions out of desperation, and even becoming radicalized into terrorism. “If you receive love, then love others,” he said. “If you felt pain of loneliness, come close to those who are alone.” “Flesh is cured by flesh,” he continued. “And God became flesh in order to cure us. Let’s do the same ourselves.”
In the Kangemi slum, the pope called on Christians everywhere to do something about people the global economic system is leaving in poverty. “I wish to call all Christians … to take initiative in the face of so many situations of injustice, to be involved in their neighbors’ problems, to accompany them in their struggles, to protect the fruits of their communitarian labor and to celebrate together each victory, large or small,” said the pope. “I ask you to remember this is not just another task; it may instead be the most important task of all, because ‘the Gospel is addressed in a special way to the poor,'” he continued, quoting Pope Benedict XVI.
