Pope: Entrepreneurship needed in face of “scandalous poverty”

As we should all know – because the Pope is smart – he supports the free enterprise system.

“If there is hunger on earth, it is not because food is missing!” Francis said in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 7. “What is lacking is a free and far-sighted entrepreneurship, which ensures adequate production, and a solidarity approach, which ensures fair distribution,” he continued. “Possession is a responsibility,” Francis stressed. “The ownership of a good makes the one who owns it an ‘administrator of Providence.’” “The possession of goods is an opportunity to multiply them with creativity and use them with generosity, and thus grow in love and freedom,” he said.

Quoting the catechism, Francis said, “Man, using created goods, must consider the external things that he legitimately possesses, not only as his own, but also as common, in the sense that they can benefit not only him but also others.”

The pope’s remarks on entrepreneurship and ownership came during a reflection on the seventh commandment, “Thou shall not steal.” In recent months, the pontiff has dedicated his weekly general audiences to a series of lessons and reflections on the Ten Commandments recorded in the scriptural books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.