Pope: The poor cannot keep waiting for justice
Pope Francis prepares to eat lunch with his guests in the Vatican audience hall on Nov. 17, 2024, the World Day of the Poor. The Italian Red Cross sponsored and served the meal. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
By CNS – A Christian faith that does not disturb the powers that be and cannot generate a serious commitment to charity becomes an innocuous devotion, Pope Francis said.
“Christian hope, fulfilled in Jesus and realised in his kingdom, needs us and our commitment, needs our faith expressed in works of charity, needs Christians who do not look the other way,” the pope said on Nov. 17, celebrating Mass for the World Day of the Poor in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“We are the ones that must make his grace shine forth through lives steeped in compassion and charity that become signs of the Lord’s presence, always close to the suffering of the poor in order to heal their wounds and transform their fate,” he said.
Making an appeal to the entire Catholic Church, all world governments and international organisations, the pope said, “Please, let us not forget the poor.” “While one part of the world is condemned to live in the slums of history, while inequalities grow and the economy punishes the weakest, while society devotes itself to the idolatry of money and consumption, it so happens that the poor and marginalised have no choice but to continue to wait,” he said.
After praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis highlighted the church in Italy’s Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors of Abuse Nov. 18. “Every abuse is a betrayal of trust and a betrayal of life. Prayer is indispensable for rebuilding trust.”
The pope then joined some 1,300 people invited to the Vatican audience hall to share lunch. The Italian Red Cross sponsored the meal, and its marching band provided entertainment. The Vincentian Fathers provided each of the pope’s guests with a backpack containing food and hygiene items to take home.
At the Mass, attended by men and women experiencing poverty and those assisting them, the pope focused his homily on “two realities always at war upon the battlefield of our hearts: anguish and hope.”
“Feelings of anguish are widespread in our age, given that social media amplifies problems and wounds, making the world more insecure and the future more uncertain,” he said.
But, he said, by looking at the very real problems of famine, the horrors of war and the deaths of the innocent, “we run the risk of falling into despondency and failing to recognise the presence of God within the drama of history” and condemning “ourselves to powerlessness.”
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