Vatican City (Reuters)-Pope Lion criticized corporate remuneration packages that offer much higher salaries than his employees in excerpts from his first media interview released on Sunday, citing Tesla’s recent compensation plan for his executive president, Elon Musk.
The native of Chicago also spoke about the United Nations, his decades working as a missionary in Peru, how he is adapting to the role of Pontiff and his hopes of peace in the bloody three -year conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
He demonstrated a more reserved style than his predecessor, Pope Francis, who often gave interviews, and prefers to speak from prepared texts. This Sunday’s excerpts were released by Crux’s Catholic news site.
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“CEOs who could be earning four to six times more than the workers are receiving … 600 times more (now),” he said in the interview, held in late July for a biography yet to be released.
“Yesterday (there was) the news that Elon Musk will be the first trillionaire in the world,” he said. “What does this mean and what is it about? If this is the only thing that has value, then we are in a big problem.”
Elected the first American pontiff with the world’s cardinals in May to replace Francis, Pope Lion criticized the UN for being no longer able to promote effective multilateral diplomacy.
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“The organization of the United Nations should be the place where many (…) questions are dealt with,” he said. “Unfortunately, it seems to be generally recognized that the United Nations, at least at this time, has lost its ability to gather people on multilateral issues.”
When he became a Pope, he said he felt more prepared at the beginning to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on spiritual issues, but less prepared to play an important role in the global diplomatic scenario.
“The totally new aspect of this work is to be released at the world leader,” he said. “I am learning a lot and feeling very challenged, but not overwhelmed.”
