Graft 'destroys entire populations' says Pope

Corruption is "like a cancer" that daily wrecks the lives of people across Latin America, Pope Francis told bishops on Thursday, calling it "one of the most serious sins that plagues our continent today".

"Corruption devastates lives by submerging them in the most extreme poverty," Francis wrote in a letter to the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) at the start of its episcopal conference in El Salvador.

"It's a corruption which destroys entire populations by subjecting them to precariousness. It's a corruption that, like a cancer, consumes the daily life of our people," Vatican Radio cited the letter as saying.

Francis deplored graft as "one of the most serious sins that plagues our continent today," and urged Latin American bishops to get closer to local people "especially those on the peripheries".

Representatives from 21 Latin American and Caribbean countries, the US and Canada are attending the CELAM conference, entitled "A poor Church for the poor" which runs through Saturday.

--IANS

ahm/vm