Pope Francis on Monday urged
authorities to help the jobless saying poverty had got much
worse during the COVID pandemic.
With the health emergency, the pontiff said in his message for
World Door of the Poor on November 14, "another scourge has been
added which has further multiplied the poor".
He stressed "it is urgent to give concrete answers to those who
are suffering from unemployment, which is dramatically hitting
so many heads of households, women and young people".
Francis added that "unscrupulous" finance also created poverty
traps.
Poverty is the result of "a system without scruples", he said.
"A market that ignores or selects ethical principles creates
inhuman conditions that fall on people already living in
precarious conditions.
"We thus see the creation of ever more traps of poverty and
exclusion, produced by unscrupulous economic and financial
actors, devoid of a humanitarian sense and social
responsibility".
The pope insisted that the poor must see their dignity restored,
and that "charity is not enough".
He said Christians should "renounce wealth and power".
Francis added that there was still too much discrimination
against women who were being held "far from positions of
responsibility".
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