Corruption and Double Lives

Last week Pope Francis, in his daily homilies at the Casa Santa Marta, spoke two days in a row about the corrupt. His words were really harsh. I hope the corrupt people scattered across Venezuela and the whole world (every day there are more of them, and more shameless!), especially those who claim to be Christians, will read his words, to see whether they can recognize their sins and leave the world that turns them into nothing more and nothing less than Antichrists!

Below I copy the Pope’s words verbatim so that you can read them: “That is how Judas began: from the sin of greed he ended up in corruption. The road of autonomy is a dangerous one. The corrupt are very forgetful; they have forgotten the love with which the Lord made the vineyard, with which he created them. They have cut off this relationship with love! And they become worshipers of themselves. How much harm the corrupt do in the Christian community! May the Lord free us from sliding down this road of corruption. There are also the saints: those who obey the Lord, those who worship the Lord, those who do not forget the love with which the Lord made the vineyard: the saints in the Church. And just as the corrupt do so much harm to the Church, the saints do a great deal of good. Of the corrupt, the apostle John says that they are the Antichrist, that they are among us but are not of us. Of the saints, the word of God speaks to us as of light: ‘those who will stand before the throne of God in adoration.’ Let us ask the Lord for the grace to feel ourselves sinners, truly sinners, not in general, but sinners because of this, and this, and this, concretely. With the concreteness of sin. And let us ask for the grace not to become corrupt: sinners, yes! Corrupt, no! And the grace to go forward on the path of holiness.”

These words should shake up the corrupt within the Church, and they should also cheer and encourage those who have been called “fools” for not taking advantage to enrich themselves dishonestly, and who live sweating to earn their money honestly and to help their neighbor. There is a bit of everything in the Lord’s vineyard!

In another homily the Pope also said, referring to the Gospel passage about “rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”: “This is precisely the language of corruption: hypocrisy… When Jesus speaks to his disciples he tells them: let your speech be Yes, yes! No, no! Hypocrisy is not the language of truth, because truth never goes alone, never! It always goes with love! There is no truth without love. Love is the first truth; if there is no love, there is no truth. These people want a truth that is the slave of their own interests. We can say there is love, but it is a love for themselves, love of themselves. That narcissistic idolatry that leads them to betray others, that leads them to abuse trust.” How harsh, isn’t it!

And he goes on: “We all have a certain inner weakness, and we like to be told nice things. We all like it; we all have some vanity. These corrupt people know it, and with this language they try to weaken us. Let us think carefully today: what is our language? Do we speak with truth, with love, or do we speak a little with that social, polite language, saying lovely things that we do not feel? Brothers and sisters, let our way of speaking be evangelical. Then these hypocrites, who begin with flattery, praise and all that, end up looking for witnesses to accuse the very people they had praised. Let us ask the Lord that our way of speaking be the way of speaking of the simple, the speech of a child, the speech of the children of God, speaking the truth and from Love.”

Thank God we have a Pope today who speaks the Truth simply and very directly; we could say he doesn’t mince words. I hope those Catholics who are corrupt, and who do so much harm to the Church, will listen to him and be able to change their lives so as to find happiness already on this earth (it has been more than proven that material means do not give it), and afterward eternal happiness. I will never forget a man I met who had been very corrupt, who gave all his possessions to the poor and asked forgiveness for what he had done. That man has since died, and he radiated a peace and happiness I cannot describe.

I take this opportunity to thank the many Venezuelan Catholics I have known (business owners, politicians, military officers, lawyers, journalists and others) who have never taken advantage of corruption or influence peddling to make money overnight. They are heroic people who go through great hardship to provide for their families rather than soil their souls, their lives and their names with this terrible evil. Keep going, because you are an essential part of the rebuilding and salvation of our beloved Venezuela!