Pope warns of globalisation of indifference at Lent

(ANSA) - Vatican City, January 27 - Pope Francis urged believers to overcome a "globalization of indifference" that is threatening to spread a feeling of distress worldwide in his Lenten message Tuesday. The faithful must "open their hearts to God" to ward off a powerlessness that is causing individuals and communities to withdraw into themselves, closing "the door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him". The Pope's Lenten message was released in the Vatican Tuesday.
    Lent, the period of fasting and penitence before Christianity's greatest feast, Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday which falls this year on 18 February.
    Returning to a theme that has marked his papacy, Francis said the "globalization of indifference" is a reality that Christians must confront by going outside of themselves.
    He urged the faithful to fight individualism with merciful hearts that are more attentive to the needs of others.
    "(Jesus) is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us," the Pope noted, saying that often times when we life a healthy and comfortable lifestyle, "we forget about others".
    "We are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure...Our heart grows cold," he observed, saying that today this "selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference.
    "God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation," the pontiff explained.
    The love of God breaks through the barriers of indifference we frequently put up, Francis stressed.
    "But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced," he said, and encouraged faithful to turn to the sacraments during Lent - particularly the Eucharist - in order to better imitate the Lord.
    He then pointed to an episode in Genesis when God asks Cain "Where is your brother?" This passage, he said, is representative of the various parishes and Christian communities around the world.
    In order to both receive what God gives to us and make it bear fruit in our communities we need to go beyond the boundaries of the physical Church, the Pope said.
    "Flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help," Francis went on.
    But both praying together as a community and performing small acts of charity are concrete ways that can prevent us from getting "caught up in this spiral of distress and powerlessness," the Pope explained.
    Pope Francis concluded his message by praying that during Lent, each person receive "a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference".