Pope on taxes: A sign of equality, justice and legality

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has encouraged tax collectors to keep working to redistribute wealth and fund social services that help the poor, saying their efforts are a “guarantee of equality” that helps the common good. Francis met with members of Italy’s tax collection agency and recalled that the taxes they gather pay for Italy’s public health care system. Francis urged them to defend that free health care “because we shouldn’t fall into a health care system that you pay for, where the poor don’t have a right to anything.” For Francis, the Biblical figure of the taxman also has a personal meaning, since his episcopal motto is a reference to Jesus’ summoning of the apostle Matthew, a tax collector.