Elon Musk responds after Pope Leo took brutal swipe at him

Elon Musk has responded with a biblical verse after Pope Leo addressed his growing monumental wealth.

Recently, news broke that the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, could soon find himself becoming the world’s first trillionaire. This is all part of a proposed $1 trillion deal with his company Tesla, as it could see Musk acquire up to 423.7 million additional shares of Tesla stock in the next decade.

However, he will only get these shares if Tesla becomes worth $8.5 trillion (around eight times as much as it's currently worth).

This has become international news, and the newly elected and first American Pope Leo commented on the massive disparity in wealth between peoples.

Speaking to The Crux for an interview that was released on his 70th birthday, Pope Leo said: "We live in times when polarization seems to be one of the words of the day, but it's not helping anybody.

"One which I think is very significant is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive."

Pope Leo went on to call out the massive difference normal workers get in comparison to the CEOs.

He added: “CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving.”

He even specifically brought attention to Elon Musk’s potential deal.

He said: “Yesterday [there was] news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world.

“What does that mean, and what's that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble."

As you can imagine, this did annoy many of Musk’s fans and Musk replied with a bible verse from the book of Matthew.

He shared a tweet and commented: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?“ (Matthew 7:3-5).”

This has been interpreted as Musk essentially arguing the Pope should look at himself and his circle, more specifically the Vatican, rather than commenting on his affairs.

This is because following Leo’s comments, some took issue with the massive wealth that the Vatican has amassed over the years.

Environmentalist and CIO of Hayman Capital Management Kyle Bass took to Twitter and stated that the estimated total wealth of the Vatican is nearing $2 trillion. They alleged that the Catholic Church owns 200 million acres of land, enjoys tax exemptions, and has an endowment with investments of over $100 billion. Musk took to sharing this post as he referenced the bible verse.

It is difficult to determine the actual wealth of the Vatican, as Vatican City and the Holy See have assets in the billions, but the vast majority of the Church's wealth is held by independent dioceses, religious orders, and local parishes, making a definitive total impossible. It is speculated that the total could be anywhere from around $10 billion to potentially hundreds of billions.

UNILAD has contacted the Vatican for comment.