Excerpts from Pope Francis speech attacking global economic order

July 9, 2015 11:20 PM

Here are key excerpts from the official English version and translations by Reuters of parts he improvised.

Pope Francis made a sweeping speech on Thursday during his Latin American tour criticising the global economic order and asking for forgiveness from indigenous peoples for crimes committed by the Church in the past.

Here are key excerpts from the official English version and translations by Reuters of parts he improvised:

ON 'INTOLERABLE' ECONOMIC ORDER:

"Do we realise that something is wrong in a world where there are so many farm workers without land, so many families without a home, so many labourers without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected? ...

"Do we realise that system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature?

"If such is the case, I would insist, let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. This system is by now intolerable."

ON ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE IN NAME OF PROFIT:

"Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common home. Today, the scientific community realises what the poor have long told us: harm, perhaps irreversible harm, is being done to the ecosystem. The earth, entire peoples and individual persons are being brutally punished.

"Once capital becomes an idol and guides people's decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home."

ON AN ECONOMY OF CHRISTIAN INSPIRATION:

"The Bible tells us that God hears the cry of his people, and I wish to join my voice to yours in calling for land, lodging and labour for all our brothers and sisters. I said it and I repeat it: these are sacred rights. It is important, it is well worth fighting for them. May the cry of the excluded be heard in Latin America and throughout the world."

ON SINS AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN NAME OF CHURCH:

"I say this to you with regret: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God ... I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America. There was sin and an abundant amount of it."

ON "NEW COLONIALISM"

"The new colonialism takes on different faces. At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain 'free trade' treaties, and the imposition of measures of 'austerity' which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor."

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