Pope Francis on Tuesday
condemned "the shameless wealth that is accumulated in the hands
of a few privileged people, and often is accompanied by
illegality and exploitation", as well as the "scandal" of the
spread of "poverty to major sectors of society all over the
world".
Faced with this, he said in a message for the First World Day
of the Poor, "we cannot remain inert and still less resigned to
their fate".
And to start with, "we need to be able to clearly identify
poverty".
Francis said "we are not inert and resigned" to "poverty
which hinders the spirit of initiative of so many young people,
preventing them from finding work; to poverty which
anaesthetises the sense of responsibility inducing people to
prefer delegating and seeking favouritism; to poverty which
poisons the wells of participation and restricts the spaces of
professionalism humiliating the merit of those who work and
produce".
The pontiff called for a "new vision of life and society"
from now on to fight poverty.
Francis added that "harking to the cry of the poor" does not
mean seeing them as "beneficiaries of aid" or "gestures to put
our consciences at ease" but "offering our effective
contribution to change history, generating real development" and
raising them "from their condition of marginalisation".
He highlighted the opposition between "empty words" and
"concrete acts".
The pope also said poverty was not a problem but a "resource
to realise the Gospel message".
He spoke of "the thousand faces of the poor, from injustice
to moral poverty".
The pontiff urged "everyone, not only believers", to combat
poverty and what he has often called today's "throwaway
culture".
"Invite them to lunch, pray with them", he exhorted the
recipients of his message.
Poverty is also a "measure of assessment for goods and ties,"
Francis said.
The pope established the World Day of the Poor last November,
saying ti was an emergency that had to be met.
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