In an address to the Italian Confederation of Cooperatives Pope Francis has slammed greed and naked capitalism.

“Money,” he said, “is the devil’s dung.”

“It is not easy to talk about money,” Francis said.

He quoted Saint Basil the Great, the Pope said “Money is the dung of the devil! When money becomes an idol, it rules over a person’s choices. And then it ruins a person and condemns him, turning him into a slave.”

He stared new ways had to be found to stop greed,“fueled by the powers that govern the economic and financial policies of the globalized world, whose center is the god of money.”

In September 2013, the Pope used similar tough language to slam wealth.

“Money becomes an idol and you worship it. This is why Jesus tells us: ‘You cannot serve the idol of money and the living God.’ Either one or the other.” Francis called money “the devil’s dung,” saying that “it turns us into idolaters, sickens our mind with pride and makes us enthusiasts of frivolous things that pull us away from the faith.”

He praised the cooperatives, and the Pope admitted for them to grow that : “To do all these things requires money!”

He stated “profit is not a god, but only a compass and a yardstick of business.”

“Cooperatives,” Francis said, “are generally not founded by big capitalists; indeed it is often said that they are structurally undercapitalized.” 

He also suggested cooperative financial institutions and firms help each other. “Pay fair wages to your workers,” he said, “investing primarily in initiatives that are truly necessary.”

“Cooperatives,” Francis said, “should continue to be the motor that uplifts and develops the weakest part of our local communities and civil society. 

Good feelings alone can’t do this. We need to prioritize the establishment of new cooperative enterprises, along with further developing existing ones, especially in order to create new job opportunities that are lacking today.”