“The poor cannot be a number, a problem or, worse still, a discard. They are our brothers”

Francisco regretted this Friday that it is still labeled as “communists” to Christians who assist the poor and, among other things, he denounced the lack of assistance to the homeless or the waste of food in the cities.

“The poor cannot be a number, a problem or, worse still, a discard. They are our brothers, flesh of our flesh (…) We must feel the issue of poverty as an ecclesial urgency,” he said at the assembly of the diocese of Rome before members of civil society gathered in the basilica of Saint John Lateran. .

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“And please, let’s not say that Christians, nuns or priests who work with the poor are communists. Please, let’s stop this. Because this is still being said,” he reproached.

The pontiff, also bishop of Rome, previously listened to several residents on the outskirts of the capital who lamented the poverty and marginalization they suffer in their neighborhoods, as well as the inequality they feel compared to rich areas.

Francis stressed that currently “There are people who live on the streets, young people who cannot find work or houses, the elderly and sick who do not have access to treatment, young people who sink into drug dependencies and other modern vices or people marked by mental suffering, abandoned and desperate.

“What can we do? Do we see in these people the face of Christ suffering? What can we do? A party to raise funds for the poor? There is a lot of hypocrisy”

“This cannot be a statistical data, it is the faces and stories of our brothers that touch and challenge us. What can we do? Do we see in these people the face of Christ suffering? What can we do? A party for raise funds for the poor? Is there a lot of hypocrisy,” criticized the pope.

Francisco He called on the Church to “take care” of the poor but in a personal and human way: “Sometimes, when I confess to someone, I ask if they give alms and they answer yes. But then I ask if when they give it, they look into the poor person’s eyes or touch their hand and they answer no. They throw the coin and continue,” he said.

“The Church is called to assume a style that places at the center those who are marked by different poverty, of food, of hope, of justice or those thirsty for the future or for real relationships to face life”

“The Church is called to assume a style that places at the center those who are marked by different poverty, of food, of hope, of justice or those thirsty for the future or for real relationships to face life,” he urged.

Likewise, Francisco criticized the “contradictions” of a city in which food is wasted while people go hungry, something he himself has seen in a restaurant near the Vatican.

“How can we accept that in our city, quintals of food are thrown away and then there are families who do not have enough to eat, that there are thousands of empty places while thousands of people sleep on a sidewalk or that some rich people have access to the medicine they need and the poor person cannot be cured with dignity,” he questioned.

“A city that witnesses these contradictions helplessly is a torn city, just as our entire planet is,” he concluded, before the hundreds of attendees at the diocesan assembly, among them the Roman mayor himself, Roberto Gualtieri.