Africa Americas Asia Australia China Europe India Middle East United Kingdom
Pope calls greed 'the devil's dung'
By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
Updated 4:41 PM EDT, Sat July 11, 2015
Pope Francis Bolivia Prison bts_00003621.jpg
PHOTO: HOST TV
Pope Francis calls modern capitalism 'dung of the devil'
Pope Francis gives his speech during his weekly general audience, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
PHOTO: Andrew Medichini/AP
Pope addresses Ireland's child sex abuse scandal
PHOTO: CNNI
Pope Francis speaks out on sex abuse scandal
Pope Francis delivers his speech during his audience for members of the International Pilgrimage of the Ministrants at St Peter's Square on July 31, 2018 in Vatican City. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
PHOTO: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images
Pope on sex abuse report: 'we abandoned the little ones'
MALMO, SWEDEN - OCTOBER 31: Pope Francis gives a speech during the 'Together in Hope' event at Malmo Arena on October 31, 2016 in Malmo, Sweden. The Pope is on 2 days visit attending Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration in Lund and Malmo. (Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
PHOTO: Michael Campanella/Getty Images
Gay man: Pope told me 'God made you like that'
On Sunday (April 15) Pope Francis comforted a child who lost his father during a visit to a poor district of Rome, saying God has a "dad's heart". During a meeting Francis answered questions from children and one of them, Emanuele, was too shy to speak at the microphone so the pontiff decided to invite him onto stage. The child started crying and hugged Francis and whispered his question into the pope's ears, saying he was afraid that his father, who was an atheist, could not go to heaven. Francis comforted Emanuele and said that it is God who decides who goes to heaven and that, since God has a 'dad's heart', he will not abandon the boy's dad, even if he was not a believer. The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics visited the parish of St. Paul of the Cross in Rome's Corviale neighbourhood and met with children of the poor district of the Italian capital and celebrated Mass for the parish community.
Boy asks pope if atheist father is in heaven
PHOTO: Mountain Butorac
Watch boy who survived cancer get Pope's kiss
Pope Francis marries flight attendants Carlos Ciuffardi, left, and Paola Podest, center, during a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Iquique, Chile, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Pope Francis celebrated the first-ever airborne papal wedding, marrying these two flight attendants from Chile's flagship airline during the flight. The couple had been married civilly in 2010, however, they said they couldn't follow-up with a church ceremony because of the 2010 earthquake that hit Chile. (L'Osservatore Romano Vatican Media/Pool Photo via AP)
PHOTO: L'Osservatore Romano Vatican Media/Pool Photo via AP
Pope performs impromptu wedding on plane
A general view shows the crowd during the Easter Sunday mass on April 16, 2017 at St Peter's square in Vatican. Christians around the world are marking the Holy Week, commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, leading up to his resurrection on Easter. / AFP PHOTO / Filippo MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
PHOTO: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
The outlaw origins of the Catholic Church
Pope's farmer reveals pontiff's favorite food
Little girl tries to steal Pope's hat
President Trump, Pope Francis exchange gifts
Pope Francis meets with Polish bishops at Wawel royal castle in Krakow, on July 27, 2016 during World Youth Days. Pope Francis heads to Poland for an international Catholic youth festival with a mission to encourage openness to migrants. / AFP / WOJTEK RADWANSKI (Photo credit should read WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
PHOTO: WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis' most memorable moments
Charlene, Princess of Monaco (2-L) kisses the hand of Pope Francis, as her husband Prince Albert II of Monaco (L) looks on prior to a private audience with the pontiff at the Vatican on January 18, 2016. / AFP / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
Papal etiquette when meeting the Pope
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 29: Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he leaves St. Peter's Square at the the end of Palm Sunday Mass on March 29, 2015 in Vatican City, Vatican. On Palm Sunday Christians celebrate Jesus' arrival into Jerusalem, where he was put to death. It marks the official beginning of Holy Week during which Christians observe the death of Christ before celebrations begin on Easter. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
PHOTO: Franco Origlia/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
Things Donald Trump has said about the Pope
Pope Francis delivered a fiery denunciation of modern capitalism on Thursday night, calling the "unfettered pursuit of money" the "dung of the devil" and accusing world leaders of "cowardice" for refusing to defend the earth from exploitation.
Speaking to grassroots organizers in Bolivia, the Pope urged the poor and disenfranchised to rise up against "new colonialism," including corporations, loan agencies, free trade treaties, austerity measures, and "the monopolizing of the communications media."
Here's what one prominent American priest had to say about the speech:
Pope Francis in Bolivia just used the strongest language I can remember a pope using about the rights of the poor and of social justice.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) July 9, 2015
There is quite a lot to unpack in the speech, including the Pope's apology for the "many grave sins" committed by Catholic Church against Native Americans "in the name of God."
Andrew Chesnut, an expert on Catholicism in Latin America, called the Pope's apology the "fullest" the church has ever given for its colonial history in the region and "the most significant aspect of his trip thus far."
The speech was pretty long, as even the Pope admitted:
#PopeFrancis asks the crowd, "Is the priest talking too much?" pic.twitter.com/EDOjRXNMpc
— Catholic News Service (@CatholicNewsSvc) July 9, 2015
Here are the 7 most pungent quotes from the Pope's speech:
1. "This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, people find it intolerable … The earth itself … also finds it intolerable."
2. "And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea, one of the church's first theologians, called 'the dung of the devil.' An unfettered pursuit of money rules. That is the dung of the devil."
3. "Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment."
4. "It is not enough to let a few drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never runs over by itself."
5. "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."
6. "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."
7. "Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without any significant result."
Pope Francis also called the recent persecution of Christians a "genocide."
"Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus. This too needs to be denounced: in this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide – and I stress the world genocide – is taking place, and it must end."
Read a Catholic priest's take on the Pope's "revolutionary" speech: The Pope's clarion call for justice.
The Pope said he's often asked why he focuses so intently on what some Christians call the "least and the lost."
Read the Gospel, Francis answered on Tuesday, specifically Matthew 25. In that passage, Jesus says that in the Last Days, Christians will be asked whether they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick.
"This is the heart of the Gospel," the Pope said.
Almost invariably, Francis ends his speeches by asking people to pray for him. At the end of Thursday's speech to grassroots organizers, he asked them – if they're not the praying types – to send him some "good vibes.
Below are some other fascinating moments from the Pope's weeklong visit to South America.
A Communist crucifix
Pope Francis celebrated Mass with nearly a million Bolivians in Santa Cruz on Thursday. But the scene that has set a thousand tongues wagging is a gift from Bolivian president Evo Morales.
On Wednesday evening in La Paz, Morales presented Francis with wooden crucifix laid atop a hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol conceived during the Russian Revolution.
You can see the symbol in the photo below.
Bolivian President Evo Morales presents Pope Francis with a gift of a crucifix carved into a wooden hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol uniting labor and peasants in La Paz, Bolivia, on July 8.
PHOTO: L'Osservatore Romano/Pool/AP
The links and battles between Communism and the Catholic Church are an extremely sensitive subject in Latin America, the Pope's home continent. While he was an archbishop in Argentina, Francis tried to strike a delicate balance between championing the poor and avoiding class warfare.
According to reports, Morales told Francis that the "Communist crucifix" was modeled on a design created by the Rev. Luis Espinal, a politically active priest murdered in Bolivia in 1980. (The Pope stopped and prayed at the site of the shooting on Wednesday evening.)
It's unclear whether the Pope told Morales, "That's not right," or simply said: "I didn't know that."
In any case, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi had the final word:
"Certainly," he told reporters, "it will not be put in a church."
Francis gets the nun's rush
A visibly winded Pope Francis landed in La Paz, Bolivia – one of the world's highest capitals – on Wednesday.
Vatican officials say the Pope did not chew coca leaves, as had been widely discussed. But he did drink coca tea, another South American remedy for altitude sickness, on the plane ride from Ecuador to Bolivia.
(The Catholic Herald has a good explainer on coca, whose leaves are considered sacred by indigenous peoples.)
For all the concern about altitude sickness, though, a Catholic nun might have given Francis his most surprising moment when she rushed toward him at La Paz Cathedral.
The Pope quickly recovered, and gave the nuns a blessing, as you can see in the video below.
It's another indication of just how excited South Americans are to welcome home the first pope from their continent.
A nun rushed Pope Francis like a rock star at a cathedral in La Paz, Bolivia. Full story: http://t.co/QNZ5JrdeL3 https://t.co/o8PjX4DZ90
— CNN Video (@CNNVideo) July 9, 2015
In a speech to Bolivian authorities later on Wednesday evening, the Pope continued to press the big themes of his weeklong trip through three South American countries: challenges to the family, economic fairness and environmental protection.
Francis called for dialogue between Bolivia and its neighbor, Chile, over access to the Pacific Ocean (a complaint Bolivian President Evo Morales reportedly mentioned to the Pope earlier on Wednesday).
He also said that Bolivia is at a "historic crossroads" and urged political, religious and cultural leaders to work together.
"In this land whose history has been marred by exploitation, greed and so many forms of selfishness and sectarianism, now is the time for integration."
Coca leaves for El Papa?
Pope Francis landed in La Paz, Bolivia, on Wednesday afternoon, a city nearly 12,000 feet above sea level.
As noted above, there had been a lot of discussion about how the 78-year-old pontiff, who has only one fully functioning lung due to a childhood bout with pneumonia, will handle the extremely high altitude.
At least one Bolivian official suggested that he should chew coca leaves, a local and legal remedy in his host country.
Check out the video below by our Shasta Darlington, in which she asks people in La Paz what Francis should do.
A papal pep talk
Addressing priests and nuns in Ecuador on Wednesday, the Pope said he had prepared a speech – but didn't want to deliver it.
Instead, the pontiff spoke spontaneously for about 30 minutes, in a speech that showcased his sprightly sense of humor.
He teased nuns who would rather watch soap operas than care for the needy. He joked that he doesn't remember quotes and Bible passages as well as he once did. And he warned priests, and bishops for that matter, not to fall prey to "spiritual Alzheimer's," a punchy phrase he has used quite often in the last few years.
The word that Francis kept coming back to is "gratuidad," mentioning it at least a dozen times during the papal pep talk. Translated into English the word is somewhat clunky: gratuitousness.
I asked a translator I've been working with a little more about "gratuidad." Is it common word in Spanish, I wondered?
It's not, said Richard Singer, the translator, and I could see that he had circled it in the Pope's prepared remarks. Singer said that he had wanted to make sure it was correct and look up what, precisely, it meant.
Literally, it means "something freely given," sort of like a "gratuity."
But unlike a tip for a waiter, "gratuidad" means not only a gift, but also one that's not necessarily deserved.
That fit with a big theme of the Pope's message to nuns and priests: Remember your roots, and don't think you're special just because you've received a calling from God.
"You did not buy a ticket to get into the seminary," he told them. "You did nothing to 'deserve' it."
Embracing the elderly, talking selfies with the young
As Pope Francis continues his trip through South America, it's clear that he wants to particularly embrace three groups of people: the young, the sick and the elderly.
As you can see in this video from Tuesday in Ecuador, that embrace is quite literal.
Mr. President, don't drill in that rainforest
Also on Tuesday night, the Pope took his eco-friendly message to the masses, calling for a new system of global justice based on human rights and care for the environment rather than economic profits.
"The goods of the Earth are meant for everyone," the Pope said, "and however much someone may parade his property, it has a social mortgage."
Francis' call for environmental protection, a prevalent theme in his papacy, came on the second full day of his weeklong tour of South America. He was speaking to a group of civic leaders and indigenous people at San Francisco Church in Quito, Ecuador's capital city.
Later this week, Francis will visit Bolivia and Paraguay. Like Ecuador, both countries are home to vast natural resources but also problems like deforestation, pollution and widespread poverty.
In recent months, indigenous groups have protested Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, saying that his promotion of drilling and mining near the Amazon rainforest could ruin their ancestral homeland.
The Pope left little doubt about whose side he takes.
"The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term benefits," Francis said.
It was interesting to see the Pope speak so specifically about his host country's environmental policies. An apt analogy might be Francis coming out against the Keystone Pipeline when he addresses the U.S. Congress this September.
Here's the Pope's whole speech, which is worth reading in full.
A real education
Earlier on Tuesday, the Pope told Catholic students and educators that the purpose of education is not to boost our social status or pad our bank accounts, but to find creative ways to help the poor and save the environment.
Pope Francis waves during a meeting with young people at the "Costanera" in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Sunday, July 12, the final day of his eight-day tour of South America.
PHOTO: JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis tours South America
In an impassioned speech – it was as animated as Francis has been thus far in his South American trip – the Pope raised his voice, urging students to "make a fuss" and telling teachers not to "play the professor."
The setting for Tuesday's speech was the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, where a crowd of thousands gathered under drizzling skies.
"My question to you, as educators, is this: Do you watch over your students, helping them to develop a critical sense, an open mind capable of caring for today's world?" the Pope asked. "Are you able to encourage them not to disregard the world around them?"
That kind of education, Francis said, only takes place outside of the classroom. Like a teacher underlining an important point – Francis taught high school and was rector of a college in Argentina – the Pope raised his voice and pumped his arms.
"As a university, as educational institutions, as teachers and students, life itself challenges us to answer this question: What does the world need us for? Where is your brother?"
He urged the students, who cheered at the mention of their name, that the mark of a good education is a feeling of "greater responsibility, in the face of today's problems, to the needs of the poor, concern for the environment."
Those two themes, poverty and care for creation, are intricately intertwined, the Pope argued in his recent encyclical, "Laudato Si." Vatican officials said that Pope Francis chose the nations on this trip to highlight the political and spiritual lessons contained in the 180-page letter to the world.
3 ways Pope Francis is shaking up the church: Politics, places and people
Tuesday was Pope Francis' second full day in Ecuador, the first stop on an eight-day trip that will also take him to Bolivia and Paraguay.
He celebrated a Mass Tuesday morning at Bicentennial Park in Quito, Ecuador's capital. Crowds were in place for hours – as was the choir, which sang a song about "Santo Padre" (Holy Father) almost all morning.
More than 1 million Catholics turned out for the Mass, organizers say. The lines for Holy Communion were quite long.
In his homily (sermon), Francis connected the themes of political liberty and religious evangelism, drawing loud cheers from the crowd. He noted that Bicentennial Park commemorates Ecuador's independence from Spain and called on Catholics to set aside their differences and be "builders of unity."
The Pope continued an early theme of his visit at the Mass: focusing on faith rather than geopolitics. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has tried to portray Francis as a close ally, but the pontiff has kept his rhetorical distance, declining to explicitly endorse the embattled Ecuadorian.
Here are three key quotes from the Pope's homily Tuesday morning:
– "Our unity can hardly shine forth if spiritual worldliness makes us feud among ourselves in a futile quest for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security."
– "Evangelization does not consist in proselytizing … but in attracting by our witness those who are far off, in humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God and the church, those who are fearful or indifferent …"
– "How beautiful it would be if we could admire how much we care for one another, how we encourage and help each other."
'Scandalous' changes?
On Monday, at another Mass, the Pope focused his sermon on the family and hinted that changes that some Catholics might consider "scandalous" could be coming to the church.
Francis was a bit vague about what he had in mind, but he said that bishops meeting this fall will be looking for "concrete solutions" to some of the challenges facing modern families. Most likely, he was referring to how the church ministers to divorced Catholics and LGBT families.
Pope says families need a miracle, hints at 'scandalous' changes for the church
After the Mass, the Pope met an old friend and had lunch with the Jesuit community. (Francis is the first Jesuit pope.) He also took many, many selfies throughout the day and shook many, many hands.
Pope Francis dined with the Jesuits in Guayaquil, Ecuador today. Photos courtesy of Jesuitas.ec More about the visit...
Posted by Fr. James Martin, SJ on Monday, July 6, 2015
It took Francis nearly an hour to get through the line Monday night at the presidential palace. He's 78, but he has the smile and the stamina of a much younger man.
It's clear that Ecuadorians are super excited about seeing the first Latin American Pope's on his first trip to Spanish-speaking countries. This gallery of papal memorabilia conveys some of the essence.
Photos: Pope memorabilia in South America
A street vendor sells cutout images of Pope Francis near the airport in El Alto, Bolivia, on Wednesday, July 8. Memorabilia is being sold across South America to commemorate the Pope's eight-day tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.
PHOTO: Rodrigo Abd/AP
Multicolored crucifixes are sold near the airport in El Alto on July 8.
PHOTO: Juan Karita/AP
A woman in Quito, Ecuador, sells images and a bust of Pope Francis on Monday, July 6.
PHOTO: LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images
Religious memorabilia is sold in Asuncion, Paraguay, on July 6.
PHOTO: NORBERTO DUARTE/AFP/Getty Images
A street vendor sells commemorative flags at the entrance of Samanes Park in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Sunday, July 5.
PHOTO: Fernando Vergara/AP
Pope buttons are sold at Samanes Park on July 5.
A street vendor sells a Pope Francis crucifix at Samanes Park on July 5.
Pope T-shirts are sold in the streets of Guayaquil on July 5.
Images of the Pope are sold outside of Samanes Park on July 5.
Prev previous image
Next next image
Late Monday night, the Pope said goodnight and went to bed. Except the crowd wouldn't let him, singing and praying outside the Vatican Embassy, where he's staying in Quito. Finally, the Pope came out, gave the crowd a quick blessing and then firmly told them to go home and let the neighbors get some rest.
The best of CNN's papal coverage
Here are some great stories by my CNN colleagues:
Shasta Darlington, who is in Ecuador, looks at how "garage churches" are challenging Catholics in Ecuador.
Rosa Flores. also in Ecuador, visits with one of the Pope's oldest friends, who opens up about what it's like to have the Pope as a buddy.
And Amara Walker has a fascinating piece on the evolution of the Popemobile, a name that Pope John Paul II hated.