Pope visits metal workers and denounces those who exploit workers

Pope Benedict warned today of the difficulties workers face in a globalized world during a visit to a steel factory in Genoa, where he stressed how work gives people a sense of human dignity. The pontiff also denounced those who exploit workers.

The visit focuses on those whose lives have been made precarious by years of economic crisis, including Italy, where a high unemployment rate, especially among young adults, has caused many to leave the country.

"An illness of the economy is the gradual transformation of entrepreneurs into speculators," the pontiff said. "The speculator does not love his trades, he does not love the workers and he only sees them as means to profit".

He condemned the political system that "sometimes seems to encourage speculators instead of those who invest and believe in work." The Pope also denounced those who say that workers only work for money. "They deny the dignity of work," he said. "It is through work that humanity flourishes."

He listened to workers who expressed their fears, including about technological transformations that threaten to leave many jobless in the future. He said that people should not renounce "an ideology spreading everywhere that paints a world where only half or maybe two-thirds of the workers will continue to work while others will be held by social checks."

 Source: Associated Press.