Pope Francis: ‘Take Your Check Back’

Speaking out against exploitation and unfair wages for workers, Pope Francis told benefactors to forget about donating money to the church if their earnings came from mistreating others. “Please, take your check back and burn it,” he said to applause. “The people of God—that is, the church—don’t need dirty money. They need hearts that are open to God’s mercy,” the pope said on March 2 during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square. God wants people to turn away from evil and do what is just, not cover up their sins with gestures of sacrifice, he said. Just as God derives no pleasure from “the blood of bulls and lambs” slaughtered in his name, he is especially averse to offerings from hands dirty with the blood of another human being. “I think of some church benefactors who come with an offering,” he said, and sometimes that offering is “fruit of the blood of many people, who are exploited, mistreated, enslaved by poorly paid work.”