Father Ted Crilly: You met the Pope.
Father Dougal McGuire: Did I?
Father Ted Crilly: Yes, do you not remember that time we were in Rome?
Father Dougal McGuire: That was the Pope? That old fella living in the art gallery?
Father Ted Crilly: The Vatican, Dougal! The Vatican!
Father Dougal McGuire: Still, he's not a celebrity in the true sense of the word.
Father Ted Crilly: He's God's representative on Earth, Dougal!
Father Dougal McGuire: You'd think he'd be taller.
Father Ted Crilly: You mean like a giant?"
Rome: Pope Francis has attacked the ''dictatorship'' of the global financial system and warned that the ''cult of money'' is making life a misery for millions.
He said free market capitalism had created a ''tyranny'' and that people were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.
Money should be made to ''serve'' people, not to ''rule'' them, he said on Thursday, calling for a more ethical banking system and curbs on financial speculation. Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow ''absolute autonomy'', in order to provide ''for the common good''.
The gap between rich and poor was growing and the ''joy of life'' was diminishing in many developed countries, the Pope said. ''While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,'' said the pontiff who, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, visited slums, opted to lived in a modest flat rather than an opulent church residence and went to work by bus. In poorer countries, people's lives were becoming ''undignified'' and marked by violence and desperation, he said.
The Pope, who was elected two months ago, made the remarks in his first substantial speech on finance and the economy, during an address to foreign ambassadors in the Vatican. It underlined his reputation for showing deep concern for the plight of the poor and vulnerable.
''The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal,'' he told the ambassadors.
As the Catholic leader in Argentina, he often spoke out about the plight of the poor during the country's economic crisis. Unchecked capitalism had created ''a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny'', he said.
''The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ's name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them,'' he said.
Pope Francis will make the first foreign trip of his papacy to Brazil in July. He will visit a Rio de Janeiro slum, meet young prison inmates and attend World Youth Day, a week-long event expected to attract more than 2 million people.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/pope-blames ... z2TbWgn5vK
The most conservative estimates had established the Pope as far and away the world's largest shareholder, the "Economist" reported to-day.
In a survey of the Vatican's wealth, the Rome correspondent of the "Economist" said it, had a portfolio of quoted securities the world over totalling at least £2,000,000,000.
Of this about one-tenth was held in Italy.
The Vatican was therefore an international financial power of formidable size.
Its reliable assets were roughly equal to the official gold and foreign exchange reserves of France.
By comparison the portfolio of England's Church Commissioners was a mere £213,000,000.