Pope Francis warns love of money is root of all evil

September 20, 2013 - Money corrupts and the idolatry of money distances one from God and weakens ones faith and thought, Pope Francis warned on Friday, adding, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” The Pope’s remark came in his homily at Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, where he reflected on the advice of St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy. Speaking about the way greed can corrupt our hearts and weaken our faith, the Pope stressed we can never serve God and money at the same time. Money, sickens our minds, poisons our thoughts, even poisons our faith, leading us down the path of jealousy, quarrels, suspicion and conflict. While money begins by offering a sense of wellbeing, if we are not careful wealth can quickly lead to vanity, self-importance and the sin of pride.
Pope Francis noted many people may object that the Ten Commandments say nothing about the evils of money. Yet when we worship money, he said, we are sinning against the first Commandment and making money our idol in place of God. The early Fathers of the Church, he said, put it in a very blunt way, calling money the dung of the devil which corrupts and leads us away from our faith. Instead of focusing on money, the Pope said, we should strive for justice, piety, faith and charity, as well as the gifts of patience and meekness which are the ways of the Lord. Pope Francis concluded with the wish that God will help each one of us to avoid falling into the trap of making money our idol.