Vatican City, Jul 7 (EFE).- Pope Francis has criticized the use of faith “to take advantage of people” and encouraged the faithful to be “scandalized” by the world’s misery, during a mass he presided over this Sunday in the northern Italian city of Trieste.
The pontiff in his homily defended his idea of a “restless” faith that “caresses the lives of people”, “puts its finger on the sores of society”, “It dispels the calculations of human selfishness, denounces evil, points the finger at injustice and disrupts the schemes of those who, in the shadow of power, play with the skin of the weak.”
“We know that many people use faith to take advantage of people. That is not faith.”he exclaimed at the mass, which brought together 8,500 faithful in the Unity of Italy square in this Italian city on the Slovenian border, where he flew today for a visit of just six hours.
Francis, who often had trouble reading his homily – because of the sun, he said – denounced that Contemporary society is “anesthetized by consumerism,” that “craving to possess” that he described as a “plague and cancer.”
On the contrary, the Pope called on the faithful not to ignore reality, especially “the dark corners of life and of our cities” because, he said, God is “in the faces hollowed out by suffering and where degradation seems to triumph.”
He gave as an example a poet from Trieste, Umberto Saba, in whose writings he described life a century ago in the port of this city on the seashore.
Adriatic, inhabited by prostitutes, sailors, brawlers and soldiers.
“The infinity of God is hidden in human misery, the Lord moves and becomes a friendly presence precisely in the wounded flesh of the last, the forgotten and the discarded,” he said.
Francis therefore criticised those who are scandalised by every little thing, but are not shocked by “the rampant evil of a humiliated life, the problems of work or the suffering of immigrants”, right in this city, gateway to the Balkan migration route.
“Why do we remain apathetic and indifferent to the injustices of the world? Why do we not take seriously the situation of prisoners? (…) Why do we not contemplate the misery, the pain and the rejection of so many people in the cities? Because we are afraid of encountering Christ,” he said, eliciting applause from the faithful.
And he concluded: “From this city of Trieste, which looks towards Europe, a crossroads of peoples and cultures, a land of frontiers, let us nourish the dream of a new civilization founded on peace and fraternity (…) Let us be indignant at all those situations in which life is brutalized, wounded and killed.”
The Argentine pontiff made a trip of just six hours to this Italian city to close the 50th Social Week of Catholics in Italy and speak regarding the state of democracy.
Later, before celebrating Mass in the centre of Trieste, he briefly met 111-year-old Mrs Maria, the Holy See confirmed.
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2024-07-08 04:18:11
