Pope Francis this weekend praised co-operatives as one solution to a “throwaway culture” mired in economic dishonesty and injustice.
In a speech to members of the Confederazione Cooperative Italiane (confederation of Italian co-operatives) on Saturday Pope Francis condemned economic systems that “suffocate hope” and a globalised culture that treated its employees as disposable.
Breaking from his prepared speech, Pope Francis highlighted the attitudes he was criticising.
"’You don't like it? Go home then', he said. “What can you do in a world that works like this? Because there's a queue of people looking for work.
“If you don't like it, someone else will. It's hunger, hunger that makes us accept what they give us," he said.
He said co-operatives create a "new type of economy" that that prioritised the dignity of its workers over profit.
Some traditional economic models exploit workers and employers think it is enough to “bestow the crumbs of accumulated wealth”, he said.
But he warned that this was often an “illusion of doing good” that did not escape “the fatal selfishness of companies that have as centre the god of money”.
He quoted St Francis of Assisi in describing money as the “devil’s dung” that enslaved men when it became their idol.
He urged them to provide for children, and those who were sick and disadvantaged, and asked them to be “protagonists to achieve new solutions of welfare”.
“Co-operatives should continue to be the motor that raises and develops the weakest part of our local communities and civil society,” he said.
He called for more co-operatives to be established, and said that they could help to solve crises of unemployment among young people, and could offer women jobs with a work-life balance that enabled them to care for their families.
Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke said the speech indicated how high workers’ rights were on the Pope’s agenda.
He tweeted: “Must be on his mind. Pope Francis talks again about the problem with paying workers under the table.”
In Italy there are more than 20, 000 cooperatives, including housing and banking movements, with more than 3 million members.
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