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.”
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I happen to be a national publisher, and even I could not understand what you were trying to say in your article. When was it that journalism morphed into more of an effort to confuse readers, rather than inform them? One would literally have to be a mind-reader to understand many of your points here. Honestly, you might as well have been writing to yourself, because I can assure you that the majority of readers would not understand what you were trying to convey. The clearest language you used was in your title. Thereafter, I felt like I was trying to solve a crossword puzzle. This is an indictment of the colleges and universities that teach journalism today. It is unfortunate that by the late 80’s journalism transitioned to more of a “creative writing” practice than an effort to effectively communicate to the masses… very sad.
Ironically enough, the article is classic example, both in its intent and its practice, of exactly what the Pope is talking about. It might have been better if both writer and editor spent more time on what the Pope actually said in his homily and less time dissecting recent papal pronouncements so as to extract any kind of ‘ammo’ that will fit, in the fruitless pasttime of criticizing the current Pope irrespective of what he does or does not say. Just a tad Sanhedrin!
Well put, Peter. I too have found Mr. Altieri’s frequent articles on this site a source of perplexity and confusion since the hard and often bitter facts of this papacy about which he writes become dissolved in a mist of ambiguity and uncertainty. What needs to be said and often repeated and emphasized is that one must look to Pope Bergoglio’s actions in order to understand his words. In the infallible judgment of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it is by their fruits and actions that a man is known. By that standard, the Vigano scandal is an exercise in dishonesty, duplicity, hypocrisy, and cynicism by all parties involved.
I don’t understand the basis of your criticism. The opinion piece seemed clear enough to me. What was ambiguous?
I agree – I had to read half way through the article to figure out what was trying to be said. That is why I prefer some Catholic sites over others – clear reporting without ambiguity, that’s my cuppa tea.
I agree, the article is a “nothingburger.”
I think I understand what he is saying. I think we all need to work on assuming the best of others and stop crucifying each other with our tongues.
Pope Francis, in that homily, proved that he is either totally detached from the reality of his own trespasses, or worse, projects his own trespasses onto others, in a double-minded play at wrongly accusing others and wrongly exonerating himself.
He stirs up trouble every day, and then pretends he is above the fray.
Is there any utterance emerging from this pontificate which does not ring hollow? Five years of deafening vacuousness on good days, pandering, mendacity and vindictiveness more commonly. A culture of third world corruption reigns upon the Chair which should be above culture. We have sunk to the depths. Pope Captain Kangaroo with Cardinal Mr. Greenjeans Maradiaga. We live in the saddest of days.
As with K. Aldrich, I don’t see where publisher Rick finds the confusion here.
If Rick really is a publisher, then he might want to look into some reading comprehension courses.
I thought the author did a nice job in framing the words of the Holy Father and the problems occurring around him. Pope Francis called this, “[T]he voice of those who twist reality and invent stories for their own benefit, without concern for the good name of others,” Yes, the good name of others. Words have meaning as the Holy Father has used so eloquently. Like when he said that those women who have many children “dont have to be like rabbits” (Oh how my protestants friends howled with laughter, my sister wept). Or when the Holy Father pointed to the former mayor of Roma and said, “that man, he is a pretend catholic”. that one had me rolling..
This is an excellent article. Altieri, as usual a loyal son of the Church, tries to leave Francis and his gang of thugs a “way out”. And so, I guess we all should, except that I find it increasingly hard to do.
Sin and heresy should be called by its name. Christ was very clear on hypocrites and the like. The “Francis effect” has been devastating for the Catholic Church – Our Lady’s prophecy is clear – the final battle will be against marriage and family, bishop against bishop, cardinal against cardinal . Who has orchestrated all of this – POPE FRANCIS – aka Jorge Bergoglio. The smoke of Satan has flooded the church.
Now he is trying to mitigate his actions by means of messages and a film – the truth is now well known in the Catholic blogosphere. The Political Pope cannot pull the wool over our eyes any more.
Well, this is really a commentary, but I think the point is actually very clear…
“That eloquent denunciation [of fake news] hit very close to home after a week in which the Holy Father accepted the resignation of his hand-picked media czar, Msgr. Dario Viganò, precisely for making partial use of the truth …
One would like to think that this was an instance of the Holy Father’s famed capacity for reproof… or he was preaching to himself. The Pope, however, asked Viganò to stay on.”
So, the Pope preaches about fake news, lets fake news be broadcast from under his own roof, and essential confirms the faker. For me that’s not hard to get. What is hard to get, or take, is a pope using the Crucifixion to makes points about sociopolitical stuff.
Well, this is really a commentary, but I think the point is actually very clear…
“That eloquent denunciation [of fake news] hit very close to home after a week in which the Holy Father accepted the resignation of his hand-picked media czar, Msgr. Dario Viganò, precisely for making partial use of the truth …
One would like to think that this was an instance of the Holy Father’s famed capacity for reproof… or he was preaching to himself. The Pope, however, asked Viganò to stay on.”
So, the Pope preaches about fake news, lets fake news be broadcast from under his own roof, and essential confirms the faker. For me that’s not hard to get. What is hard to get, or take, is a pope using the Crucifixion to make points about sociopolitical stuff.
Blaming the messenger on this matter gets us nowhere. The clumsy attempt to get Benedict’s endorsement of items Benedict wouldn’t endorse was painful. And it doesn’t seem to matter what happens – Francis has a tin ear for any kind of criticism. His supporters never do wrong – he never does wrong – so if there is criticism it must be vindictive and self-evidently dishonest. Personally I think Mr. Altieri like most writers trying to make sense of the Francis papacy bends over backward to be fair. After all, if the author speaks ill of the Pope, he must be vindictive and dishonest – the Pope tells us so.