202.1 - Good News: Pope Francis calls for equal pay

Good News: Pope Francis calls for equal pay

Let's start with some - I'm not calling it Good News but rather interesting news.

Aw, heck, call it Good News.

At his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on April 29, Pope Francis was taking about families and keeping families together and in that context he said that

as Christians, we must become more demanding in this regard: for example, [by] supporting with decision the right to equal retribution for equal work; disparity is a pure scandal.

"To make these blessings [of families] more evident to the world," he said later, there must be "new fruit," including "equal opportunities in the workplace."

That is, Pope Francis was calling for equal pay for work of equal value for men and women - the disparity between them, again, being "a pure scandal."

Now, the truth is I'm always a little put off by celebrations of families and declarations of how things are "for the children" from a religion whose priesthood is required to be celibate. Still, I do appreciate the fact that with Pope Francis there is an emphasis on social justice that had been lacking in the Catholic church of late, which seems to have been spending most of its energy on opposing reproductive rights and same-sex marriage. That shift is, yes, good news.

Sources cited in links:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/04/29/pope_francis_compensation_disparity_a_pure_scandal/1140428