Guantanamo.- Pope Leo XIV urged world leaders, during Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor, to reach out to the most needy in order to eradicate this scourge afflicting humanity.In the religious ceremony held ar St. Peter’s Basilica, as part of the IX World Day of the Poor, the pontiff delivered a homily in which he thanked charity workers, the numerous volunteers, and all those dedicated to alleviating the conditions of the most humble.
“There can be no peace without justice, and the poor remind us of this in so many ways, with their migration and their cries, often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that ignores everyone and even forgets many, abandoning them to their fate,” he noted.
“Poverty poses a challenge for Christians, but also for all those who hold positions of responsibility in society,” and “therefore, I urge heads of State and national leaders to listen to the cry of the poorest,” the Holy Father declared.
“How much poverty oppresses our world!” he lamented, asserting that “it is primarily material poverty, but there are also many moral and spiritual situations that tend to affect young people especially, and the tragedy that runs through them all is loneliness.”
In this regard, the Bishop of Rome invited us to “see poverty globally, because while it is true that sometimes it is necessary to respond to urgent needs, in general it is a culture of care that we must develop, precisely to break down the wall of loneliness.”
The poor are not simply a sociological category, and they challenge us all to abandon self-absorption and religious indifference so that human coexistence may become “a space of fraternity and dignity for all,” Pope Leo XIV added.
