For pope, it is the poor who pay the cost of kickbacks.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Who pays for "corrupt politicians, the corrupt businessmen and the corrupt clergy"? Not the middlemen who pay the kickback, but "the poor," the "Hospitals [that go] without medicine, the patients who did not receive care, the children without education," warned Pope Francis during the Mass he celebrated this morning at Domus Sanctae Marthae.
During the service, he talked about corruption as an "old" but "handy" sin that can be defeated by being of service to others. Taking his cue from the Biblical story of Naboth, the owner of a vineyard that had been in his family for generations, Francis noted that when King Ahab wanted "to widen his garden a bit," he asked Naboth to sell it.
When the latter refused saying that he did not intend to dispose of' the "inheritance of his fathers," the King took the rejection very badly, so his wife Jezebel weaved a trap with the help of false witnesses, and Naboth was dragged into court, convicted and stoned to death.
In the end, Jezebel delivered the desired vineyard to her husband, who took the land calmly, "as though nothing had happened." For Pope Francis, "This story is continuously repeating itself," among the ranks of those who wield power, whether material, political or spiritual.
"In the newspapers we read many times: 'Ah, that politician who got rich by magic has been brought into court. That business owner, who got rich by magic - that is, by exploiting his workers -, has been dragged into court. We hear too much talk of a prelate who has become rich too, and left his pastoral duty to care for his power. So, the corrupt politicians, the corrupt businessmen and the corrupt clergy, are to be found everywhere. And we have to tell the truth: corruption is precisely the sin that the person with authority - whether political, economic or ecclesiastical - has most readily at hand over others. We are all tempted by corruption. It is a 'handy' sin, for, when one has authority, one feels powerful; one feels almost like God."
The Holy Father went on to say that one becomes corrupt "along the way, looking out for number One." Starting with "well-being, money, then the power, vanity, pride - and from there, everything [becomes possible], even killing." But "who pays the price for corruption?" Those who "pay the kickback?" No, they are but "middlemen". It is the "poor who pay the price".
"If we talk of politically or economically corrupt people, who pays for [their corruption]? Hospitals without medicine, the patients who did not receive care, the children without education. They are the modern Naboths, who pay the price for the corruption of the haughty. And who pays the price for the corruption of a prelate? The children pay, who cannot make the sign of the cross, who do not know the catechism, who are not cared-for. The sick who are not visited, the imprisoned, who receive no spiritual attention. The poor pay. Corruption is paid by the poor: the materially poor and the spiritually poor."
Today, "the only way to escape corruption, the only way to overcome the temptation to - the sin of - corruption, is service." Because, the Pontiff explained, "corruption is pride, arrogance - and service humiliates you." It is "humble charity to help others".
"Today, we offer the Mass for them - many, many of them - who are paying the price for corruption, bearing the cost of the lives of the corrupt. These martyrs of political corruption, economic corruption, and ecclesiastical corruption. We pray for them. May the Lord bring us closer to them. Surely, He was very close to Naboth, in the moment he was stoned to death, as He was to Stephen. May the Lord be close and give strength [to those bearing the burden of corruption], so that they might go forward with their witness."
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