Pope Francis waves to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 9, 2015 for the general audience. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jun 14, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Monday that “the very concept of democracy is jeopardized” when the poor are marginalized and treated as if they are to blame for their condition.
In his World Day of the Poor message released June 14, the pope appealed for a new global approach to poverty.
“This is a challenge that governments and world institutions need to take up with a farsighted social model capable of countering the new forms of poverty that are now sweeping the world and will decisively affect coming decades,” he wrote.
“If the poor are marginalized, as if they were to blame for their condition, then the very concept of democracy is jeopardized and every social policy will prove bankrupt.”
The theme of this year’s World Day of the Poor is “The poor you will always have with you,” the words of Jesus recorded in Mark 14:7 after a woman anointed him with precious ointment.
While Judas and others were scandalized by the gesture, Jesus accepted it, the pope said, because he saw it as pointing to the anointing of his body after his crucifixion.
“Jesus was reminding them that he is the first of the poor, the poorest of the poor, because he represents all of them. It was also for the sake of the poor, the lonely, the marginalized and the victims of discrimination, that the Son of God accepted the woman’s gesture,” the pope wrote.
“With a woman’s sensitivity, she alone understood what the Lord was thinking. That nameless woman, meant perhaps to represent all those women who down the centuries would be silenced and suffer violence, thus became the first of those women who were significantly present at the supreme moments of Christ’s life: his crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.”
The pope continued: “Women, so often discriminated against and excluded from positions of responsibility, are seen in the Gospels to play a leading role in the history of revelation.”
“Jesus’ then goes on to associate that woman with the great mission of evangelization: ‘Amen, I say to you, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her’ (Mark 14:9).”
The pope lamented what he said was an increasing tendency to dismiss the poor against the background of the coronavirus crisis.
“There seems to be a growing notion that the poor are not only responsible for their condition, but that they represent an intolerable burden for an economic system focused on the interests of a few privileged groups,” he commented.
“A market that ignores ethical principles, or picks and chooses from among them, creates inhumane conditions for people already in precarious situations. We are now seeing the creation of new traps of poverty and exclusion, set by unscrupulous economic and financial actors lacking in a humanitarian sense and in social responsibility.”
Looking back to 2020, the year that COVID-19 swept the world, he continued: “Last year we experienced yet another scourge that multiplied the numbers of the poor: the pandemic, which continues to affect millions of people and, even when it does not bring suffering and death, is nonetheless a portent of poverty.”
“The poor have increased disproportionately and, tragically, they will continue to do so in the coming months.”
The World Bank estimated in October that the pandemic could push as many as 115 million additional people into extreme poverty by 2021. It said that it expected global extreme poverty — defined as living on less than $1.90 a day — to rise in 2020 for the first time in more than 20 years.
The pope wrote: “Some countries are suffering extremely severe consequences from the pandemic, so that the most vulnerable of their people lack basic necessities. The long lines in front of soup kitchens are a tangible sign of this deterioration.”
“There is a clear need to find the most suitable means of combating the virus at the global level without promoting partisan interests.”
“It is especially urgent to offer concrete responses to those who are unemployed, whose numbers include many fathers, mothers, and young people.”
Pope Francis established the World Day of the Poor in his apostolic letter Misericordia et misera, issued in 2016 at the end of the Church’s Jubilee Year of Mercy.
The idea came about, he explained, during the Jubilee for Socially Excluded People.
“At the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, I 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,” the pope wrote in his first World Day of the Poor message in 2017.
The Day is celebrated each year on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, a week before the Feast of Christ the King. This year, it will fall on Nov. 14.
Coronavirus restrictions forced the Vatican to scale down its commemoration of the World Day of the Poor in 2020. It was unable to host a “field hospital” for the poor in St. Peter’s Square as it had in previous years. But it distributed 5,000 parcels to Rome’s poor and gave 350,000 masks to schools.
Pope Francis followed his custom of marking the day by celebrating a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Presenting the papal message at a Vatican press conference on June 14, Archbishop Rino Fisichella noted that the pope highlighted the example of St. Damien of Molokai.
The Belgian priest, canonized in 2009, ministered to leprosy sufferers in Hawaii.
“Pope Francis calls to mind the witness of this saint in confirmation of so many men and women, including hundreds of priests, who in this COVID-19 drama have been willing to share totally in the suffering of millions of infected people,” the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization said.
In the message, signed on June 13, the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, the pope argued that nowadays people in prosperous countries “are less willing than in the past to confront poverty.”
“The state of relative affluence to which we have become accustomed makes it more difficult to accept sacrifices and deprivation. People are ready to do anything rather than to be deprived of the fruits of easy gain,” he argued.
“As a result, they fall into forms of resentment, spasmodic nervousness and demands that lead to fear, anxiety and, in some cases, violence. This is no way to build our future; those attitudes are themselves forms of poverty which we cannot disregard.”
“We need to be open to reading the signs of the times that ask us to find new ways of being evangelizers in the contemporary world. Immediate assistance in responding to the needs of the poor must not prevent us from showing foresight in implementing new signs of Christian love and charity as a response to the new forms of poverty experienced by humanity today.”
The pope said he hoped that this year’s commemoration of the World Day of the Poor would inspire a new movement of evangelization at the service of disadvantaged people.
“We cannot wait for the poor to knock on our door; we need urgently to reach them in their homes, in hospitals and nursing homes, on the streets and in the dark corners where they sometimes hide, in shelters and reception centers,” he wrote.
Concluding his message, the pope cited the influential 20th-century Italian priest Fr. Primo Mazzolari, who he honored in 2017.
He wrote: “Let us make our own the heartfelt plea of Fr. Primo Mazzolari: ‘I beg you not to ask me if there are poor people, who they are and how many of them there are, because I fear that those questions represent a distraction or a pretext for avoiding a clear appeal to our consciences and our hearts… I have never counted the poor, because they cannot be counted: the poor are to be embraced, not counted.’”
“The poor are present in our midst. How evangelical it would be if we could say with all truth: we too are poor, because only in this way will we truly be able to recognize them, to make them part of our lives and an instrument of our salvation.”
[…]
We read: “What is a human being? What is his or her inherent dignity, which is irreconcilable with a digital android?”
Yes, the incarnate Jesus Christ is analogue, not digital. But, we have the progressiveness of first placing Pachamama in a niche in St. Peter’s Basilica alongside the real Eucharistic Presence, and of displacing binary human relationships with a “third option” of alphabetical pronouns, and then the symbolic “coexistence” of rainbow banners within the church of St. Gesu and then in St. Peter’s in what used to be the “eternal city.”
Is LGBTQ penetration of the Church a consequence of transformer toys and then narcissist computer gaming and a digitally disintegrated “universe”? In addition to upending what is cerebral, digitized AI erodes what is created and physical. So, what now of the “survival of the human race,” as in what are “human” and “human race”?
Just words! In practice, Nominalism is the new orthodoxy. About elementary governance within the Mystical Body of Christ, souls are waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Yes to all your rhetorical questions. Although you don’t need my support for your persuasions. And for a short time all seemed so bright.
Our beloved Pope Leo XIV instructs Catholic theologians to root their work in an encounter with Christ, whilst engaging with philosophy, science, economics, law, literature, the arts, and with other cultures and religions.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines theology as: “The study of God based on revelation.” It also repeatedly emphasises the transcendent mystery of God.
In my lowly position, I would rather have read our earthly leader had instructed our theologians to be rooted in an uncompromising devotion and submission to King Jesus Christ, seeking always to be a theologian to whom The Father is revealed by Christ our LORD, as Saint Matthew gives us at 11:27.
“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father; and no one knows The Son except The Father, just as no one knows The Father except The Son and those to whom The Son chooses to reveal Him.”
Maybe this is what the Catechism means when it defines authentic Catholic theology as being based on revelation.
Since when has The Church forgotten that divine revelation is given to overcome the lying deceits that are inherent in a universe whose prince is a liar from the start and a thief and murderer and destroyer (see, e.g., John 8:44; 10:10; 12:31). It seems problematic to ignore that aspect of ‘Creation’ alltogether.
The greatest part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was devoted to overcoming the evils that have infected ‘Creation’, and to teaching His disciples (and us) how to do that.
Theologians have fresh opportunities to be creative, constructive and relevant. Remaining on the back foot and calling the shots is replete with short comings. Life keeps evolving all the time, faster than ever before. Pilgrims on the move cannot remain static but are expected to move ahead with eyes, minds and hearts wide open. Day by day the need for an anthropological vision rooted in human dignity keeps challenging our theologians here, there, and everywhere. It’s a healthy challenge to be embraced whole-heartedly.
It’s pleasing to find a Catholic theologian who knows what he’s talking about:
Catholic Theology: An Introduction
Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.
August 15, 2024
The opening paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the whole of the Christian life and, thereby, the purpose of Catholic theology:
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (CCC no. 1)
The profound significance of the very first word of the Catechism is difficult to overestimate. As an authoritative summary of Catholic faith and morals (CCC no. 11), the Catechism begins with God. Why? God is the beginning and the end of Christian doctrine. Likewise, God is the center of sacred theology. A Christian life without God is impossible. Moreover, Catholic theology without God is unintelligible.
In these carefully selected and arranged words, the Catechism highlights the fact that God is “infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.” God does not suffer from any needs or privations. He is perfection. Thus, the existence of creatures does not originate from any insufficiency within God. Rather, all creatures—including rational creatures, whether men or angels—proceed from God’s “plan of sheer goodness.” Creatures exist because God is infinitely good.
God created to share his goodness with his creatures. He did not create in order to receive something that he lacked. He “freely created man to make him share in his [God’s] own blessed life.” God’s loving wisdom accounts for the creation of the human person. Moreover, his good and loving wisdom informs the inherent structures of creation in general and the nature of the human person in particular. Because God created man to share himself with man, “at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.”
There are no barriers between God and the human person. The Christian faith denies any conceptions about God that would posit spatial or affective distance between God and creatures. The God who creates sustains his creation in existence. The Christian faith utterly rejects deistic conceptions of the deity and of creation. God is not an absent watchmaker.
Consequently, God “calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.” God’s presence to his creatures is such that he enables human persons not only to be known or loved by God, but also to know and to love God themselves. No creature can self-create. Moreover, as a creature of God, the human person is created for God. Thus, the created reality of humanity is not simply passive in nature. It is part of the primordial vocation of the human person to pursue God through the active powers of knowing and loving.
The human orientation to God is expressed even in the human experience of things other than God. All truth is God’s truth. All truthful knowledge is ultimately oriented to God because all of reality bears a God-oriented shape and direction. And the human person is uniquely called to pursue God in a specifically rational way through knowledge and love. In its very first paragraph, the Catechism provides a roadmap for the whole of human life and the whole of Catholic thought. In other words, this single paragraph gives a concise account of the essence of Catholic theology.
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How widely among Catholics, is it appreciated that just as there is SCIENCE and there is SCIENCE FICTION, so too there is THEOLOGY and there is THEOLOGY FICTION.
The most serious problem arises: for whilst the sport of Science Fiction is unlikely to genocide human souls, that is exactly what the sport of Theology Fiction does.
Theology Fiction – sadly a popular genre – can be inherently soul-genociding; our willfully blind shepherds (see 2 Corinthians 4:4) leading leeming-like sheep into the pit (see Matthew 15:14 & Luke 6:39)..
There is manifestly no respect for Deuteronomy 27, nor fear of its divine curses;
e.g. “A cures on one who leads a blind man astray . . .”
What hope is there then for the average Catholic?
Every hope, when our Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Priests, Deacons, Religious, and Lay Leaders are steeped in The New Testament and The Catechism of the Catholic Church – that is, have their eyes wide-open, and their hearts obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ – our One & Only True Teacher, and so, are full of The Holy Spirit, manifest in their lives.
Let no theologian suggest GOD has left us sheep without help. It’s all there!
Correction
‘e.g. “A curse on one who leads a blind man astray . . .”’
Dear Dr John Grondelski has given us some relevant observations on what real, ‘non-grasping’, Christ-following Catholicism looks like.
https://www.newoxfordreview.org/the-need-to-stop-grasping/
We might add that the far-from-uncommon Catholic method of sermonizing people to change, no matter how well argued, rarely works. People may get dismissive, self-delusional or worse: guilty, hypocritical, or even cynical.
REAL change comes from being filled with GOD’s Holy Spirit, who counsells us from within, helping us move towards a sanctity of Christ-like self-emptyingness we can never achieve by will-power or by so-called ‘spiritual disciplines’.
How, then, does a Catholic get full of The Holy Spirit of GOD? Our LORD Jesus Christ and His holy Apostles plainly taught us -“Obey the Commandments of GOD with love, and GOD will make His home in you!” No pentecostal/charismatic shortcuts! Just OBEY!
The glory of being in-dwelt by GOD’s Holy Spirit is that, year-by-year we find we’re indeed becoming a different person: a MUCH wiser, more-loving person! No sweat!
As this truly beautifully-sung song says:”NOT BY ME BUT BY CHRIST IN ME!”
CityAlight – ‘不是我，是基督住我心’ (现场) [feat. Christie Kwek] – YouTube
In short: Do your best to learn & lovingly obey GOD’s commands – you’ll be filled by The Holy Spirit of GOD – you will be able to give up grasping and step-by-step you’ll start to become like Christ our LORD.
The alternative is to ignore GOD’s commands, sin, & become a slave of sin; left on our own, devoid of The Help, Advocacy, Counsel, Comfort, & Friendship of The Holy Spirit of GOD.
As Moses urged Israel: “For goodness sake, chose Life not death.”
Do theologians who dimiss the commandments have any understanding of this . . ?