(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ Message for the first World Day of the Poor, to be observed on November 19th, was presented to journalists on Tuesday at the Holy See press office.Listen to our report: In the message entitled, “Let us love, not with words but with deeds”, Pope Francis explains that at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, he wanted to offer the Church a World Day of the Poor, “so that throughout the world Christian communities can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need.”He goes on to invite “the whole Church, and men and women of good will everywhere, to turn their gaze on this day to all those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity.”Presenting the message to journalists at the Holy See press office on Tuesday, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which organized the Ju...
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ Message for the first World Day of the Poor, to be observed on November 19th, was presented to journalists on Tuesday at the Holy See press office.
Listen to our report:
In the message entitled, “Let us love, not with words but with deeds”, Pope Francis explains that at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, he wanted to offer the Church a World Day of the Poor, “so that throughout the world Christian communities can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need.”
He goes on to invite “the whole Church, and men and women of good will everywhere, to turn their gaze on this day to all those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity.”
Presenting the message to journalists at the Holy See press office on Tuesday, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which organized the Jubilee of Mercy, explained that this World Day of the Poor was announced spontaneously by Pope Francis.
Archbishop Fisichella said that on the 13th November 2016 while Cathedrals around the world were closing their Holy Doors, the Pope was looking into the eyes of those present in St Peter’s Basilica during Mass to celebrate the Jubilee dedicated to the Socially Marginalized. In the preceding days the Holy Father, continued the Archbishop, heard many emotional stories of people in difficulty. He went on to say that Pope Francis probably decided at the end of his homily to announce this day having heard so many moving accounts of hardship.
The Holy Father’s message, draws from the life of St Francis and he comments that “precisely because he kept his gaze fixed on Christ, Francis was able to see and serve him in the poor. “
The Pope notes that “if we want to help change history and promote real development, we need to hear the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to ending their marginalization.”
The challenge of Poverty
Pope Francis also writes about how poverty challenges us “daily, in faces marked by suffering, marginalization, oppression, violence, torture and imprisonment, war, deprivation of freedom and dignity, ignorance and illiteracy, medical emergencies and shortage of work, trafficking and slavery, exile, extreme poverty and forced migration.”
There is also a poverty, the Pope highlights, “that stifles the spirit of initiative of so many young people by keeping them from finding work.”
Faced with this scenario, Pope Francis stresses, “we cannot remain passive, much less resigned.”
Concluding his message the Holy Father, underlines that, “the poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel.”
The World Day of the Poor will be observed on November 19th 2017.
A patient at the new Misky María Palliative Care Hospital located on the outskirts of Lima, Perú. / Credit: Asociación de las Bienaventuranzas (Association of the Beatitudes)ACI Prensa Staff, May 4, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).In the context of the recent news of the death of Ana Estrada, the first person to request and receive euthanasia in Peru, there is a contrasting story to tell on care for the dying in that country: that of a new Catholic hospital on the outskirts of Lima that provides palliative care, which extends the love of Christ to those in extreme poverty who are in the final stages of their lives.The beginning of the 'Misky María' HospitalIn 2021, Father Omar Sánchez Portillo, a priest known for his extensive charitable work in the district of Lurín (south of Lima) and founder of the Association of the Beatitudes, had the dream of building a center to serve, with the "sweetness of Mary," people in situations of abandonment and extreme poverty who have terminal illnesses...
President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesuit Father Greg Boyle on May 3, 2024. / Screenshot/public domainCNA Staff, May 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).The White House on Friday announced that Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a prominent ministry dedicated to rehabilitating gang-affiliated youth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside 18 other recipients this afternoon. Boyle, ordained a priest in 1984, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992 while pastor of Dolores Mission, a Catholic church and school in an area that at one time had one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in Los Angeles. Today, Homeboy Industries claims to be the largest gang-intervention program in the United States.The successful ministry, which now operates nationwide, offers training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail, as well as case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.Wh...
Father Roger Landry, Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, discusses the protests at Columbia University in New York City on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" on May 2, 2024. / Credit: EWTN News The World Over / ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 3, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).Father Roger Landry, a Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, said on Thursday that the protests making national headlines at the New York City school are being organized in part by "explicitly communist" outside forces. "There is an instrumentalization of what's going on in Gaza to advance an agenda," he said. "And that is to deconstruct our present world order at which the United States is considered the top of that order."Speaking on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo," Landry said that he had been walking through the encampment nearly daily, conversing with student protesters and other "outside agitators." While he said he believes that many of the protesters we...