Pope Francis on Friday sent a message of encouragement to the
hundreds of religious and community leaders participating in a meeting
of popular movements being held this week in California.
“It is the Church, the Christian community, people of compassion and
solidarity, social organizations. It is us, it is you, to whom the Lord
Jesus daily entrusts those who are afflicted in body and spirit, so that
we can continue pouring out all of his immeasurable mercy and salvation
upon them,” Pope Francis said in his Feb. 17 message to a regional
meeting of popular movements being held in California.
“Here are the roots of the authentic humanity that resists the
dehumanization that wears the livery of indifference, hypocrisy, or
intolerance.”
The Feb. 16-18 conference being held in Modesto, about 30 miles
southeast of Stockton, was organized with the support of the Dicastery
for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Catholic Campaign for
Human Development, and the PICO National Network.
The PICO network was a recipient of part of a $650,000 grant from
George Soros' Open Society Foundations. Documents from the foundations
posted to DCLeaks.com claimed the grant was part of a strategy to use Pope Francis’ U.S. visit to shift the priorities of the Catholic Church in the United States “to be a voice on behalf of the poor and communities of color.”
“PICO and FPL have been able to use their engagement in the
opportunity of the Pope’s visit to seed their position in the long-term
project of shifting the priorities of the U.S. Catholic Church to focus
on issues of injustice and oppression,” the memo said.
The conference aims to promote the structural changes for greater justice in racial, social, and economic areas.
“It makes me very happy to see you working together towards social
justice,” Pope Francis said in his message to the meeting. “How I wish
that such constructive energy would spread to all dioceses, because it
builds bridges between peoples and individuals. These are bridges that
can overcome the walls of exclusion, indifference, racism, and
intolerance.”
The Pope confronted the “invisible tyranny of money” as a disability
and restriction to human dignity and the common good. He also
discouraged corrupt acts which leads to the benefit of a few and to the
ruin of many families.
“The economic system that has the god of money at its center, and
that sometimes acts with the brutality of the robbers in the [Samaritan]
parable, inflicts injuries that to a criminal degree have remained
neglected. Globalized society frequently looks the other way with the
pretense of innocence. Under the guise of what is politically correct or
ideologically fashionable, one looks at those who suffer without
touching them.”
Pope Francis said we must instead respond with change to a system
that better reflects loving our neighbor as ourselves. Emphasizing the
need for immediate action, he said it is our responsibility to pay
attention to present realities, which if unchecked may develop a
dehumanizing system that is harder to reverse.
“These are signs of the times that we need to recognize in order to
act. We have lost valuable time: time when we did not pay enough
attention to these processes, time when we did not resolve these
destructive realities. The direction taken beyond this historic
turning-point … will depend on people’s involvement and participation
and, largely, on yourselves, the popular movements.”
The call for action comes at a time of immigration reform and a refugee crisis.
Pope Francis reiterated the question of the lawyer to Christ in the
Gospel of Luke: “Who is my neighbor? … My relatives? My compatriots? My
co-religionists?” He recognized that the lawyer's hope may have been for
Christ to label neighbors and non-neighbors.
“Do not classify others in order to see who is a neighbor and who is
not,” the Pope exhorted. “You can become neighbor to whomever you meet
in need, and you will do so if you have compassion in your heart. That
is to say, if you have that capacity to suffer with someone else. You
must become a Samaritan.”
Recalling that those at the conference have a commitment “to fight
for social justice, to defend our Sister Mother Earth and to stand
alongside migrants,” Pope Francis affirmed this choice and shared
reflections on “the ecological crisis” and that “no people is criminal
and no religion is terrorist.”
“The ecological crisis is real,” he emphasized first. “Science is not
the only form of knowledge, it is true. It is also true that science is
not necessarily 'neutral' — many times it conceals ideological views or
economic interests. However, we also know what happens when we deny
science and disregard the voice of Nature. I make my own everything that
concerns us as Catholics. Let us not fall into denial. Time is running
out. Let us act. I ask you again – all of you, people of all backgrounds
including native people, pastors, political leaders – to defend
Creation.”
“No people is criminal and no religion is terrorist,” Pope Francis
then said. “Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does
not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist. No
people is criminal or drug-trafficking or violent.”
He recognized, however, that “there are fundamentalist and violent
individuals in all peoples and religions – and with intolerant
generalizations they become stronger because they feed on hate and
xenophobia.”
“The wounds are there, they are a reality. The unemployment is real,
the violence is real, the corruption is real, the identity crisis is
real, the gutting of democracies is real,” he continued, identifying the
world’s suffering as a “gangrene” whose stench has become unbearable,
leading to more hate, quarrels, and even a “justified indignation.”
In the face of this crisis, he said Christians have an opportunity to
impact the world: “We also find an opportunity: that the light of the
love of neighbor may illuminate the Earth with its stunning brightness
like a lightning bolt in the dark.”
He ended his message in reference to the prayer of Saint Francis of
Assisi: “let us give everything of ourselves: where there is hatred, let
us sow love; where there is injury, let us sow pardon; where there is
discord, let us sow unity; where there is error, let us sow truth.”
In the course of his message, he thanked Bishop Stephen Blaire of
Stockton, Bishop Armando Ochoa of Fresno, Bishop Jaime Soto of
Sacramento, Bishop David Talley of Alexandria, and Cardinal Peter
Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human
Development.
“I would also like to highlight the work done by the PICO National
Network and the organizations promoting this meeting,” Pope Francis also
said. “I learned that PICO stands for 'People Improving Communities
through Organizing'. What a great synthesis of the mission of popular
movements: to work locally, side by side with your neighbors, organizing
among yourselves, to make your communities thrive.”