Pope Francis encouraged the leaders of the popular movements to stand up to “the dehumanization” that is spreading in today’s world and to fight against injustice wherever it rears its ugly head in a passionate talk on social justice this morning, Sept. 20. “It is often precisely the wealthiest who oppose the realization of social justice or integral ecology out of sheer greed,” he said.
Francis, speaking in Spanish, began by recalling their first meeting in October 2014 in the Vatican, which brought together representatives of these grassroots movements and organizations from 80 countries, representing millions of poor people worldwide. On that occasion, he said, “We planted a flag: land, shelter and work”—in Spanish, they are the three “Ts”: “tierra, techo y trabajo”—which he called “sacred rights.”
Francis began with words of encouragement: “Your mission is transcendent. If the poor people do not resign themselves, [if they] organize, persevere in daily community building and at the same time fight against the structures of social injustice, sooner or later, things will change for the better.”
He praised them for not giving into “passivity and pessimism” but opting to be “protagonists of history” and working together “body to body,” doing concrete works, to improve the local situation, often without help from the state and sometimes while facing persecution.
He said that “the poor are at the center of the Gospel” and that “it is not the pope but Jesus who puts them in that place. It is a matter of our faith that cannot be negotiated.”
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Gerard O’Connell is America’s Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
With thanks to America and Gerard O’Connell, where this article originally appeared.
