POPE FRANCIS: ‘WHOEVER WILL NOT WORK SHOULD NOT EAT’

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Breitbart:

In his weekly Angelus message Wednesday, Pope Francis praised the value of hard work and a willingness to do one’s part for the common good rather than freeloading off society.

 

Citing Saint Paul, Francis said that “anyone unwilling to work should not eat” and added that being called a hard worker is the highest form of praise for a “serious, honest person.”

 

To call someone a worker, the Pope said, means that he is a member of the community who does his part and doesn’t “live off others.”

 

Work, he noted, “is needed to support one’s family, raise children and ensure a decent life to loved ones.” This habit of hard work, he added, is learned in the home, from one’s parents who support their family and in this way contribute to the common good.

 

Christians can find a great example of industriousness in the life of Jesus himself, Francis said. In the Gospel, “the Holy Family of Nazareth appears as a working family, and Jesus himself is called a ‘carpenter’s son’ or even ‘the carpenter.’”

 

Saint Paul’s injunction that people who don’t want to work shouldn’t eat is a “good recipe for losing weight,” he quipped.

 

Paul’s denunciation of idleness, Francis continued, “refers explicitly to a false spiritualism of some who lived off the backs of their brothers and sisters while ‘doing nothing.’” In the Christian outlook, a commitment of hard work is not opposed to a deep spiritual life, Francis said, referencing the example of Saint Benedict who taught that “prayer and work can and should be found together in harmony.”

 

“A lack of work is bad for the spirit,” the Pope said, just as a lack of prayer detracts from practical activity.

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His leftist Latin American friends won't like this...