Pope to Catholic farmers: ‘Follow agricultural cycle,
not money’
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has told a Catholic
association of farmers not to sacrifice the rhythms of agricultural life for
monetary gains.
His address to the International Catholic Rural Association
(ICRA) came on Saturday in the Vatican’s Consistory Hall.
The International Catholic Rural Association promotes the
environmental, social, and economic sustainability of agriculture, as well as
international food security.
In his remarks, Pope Francis praised the association’s “concern
for rural life, grounded in the vision of the Church’s social doctrine”.
He said, “It is an eloquent expression of that imperative to
‘till and keep the garden of the world’ (Laudato Si’, 67) to which we have been
called, if we wish to carry on God’s creative activity and to protect our
common home.”
Despite the centrality of agriculture to human life, the
Holy Father said it is paradoxical that “agriculture is no longer considered a
primary sector of the economy, yet it clearly continues to be important for
policies of development and for addressing disparities in food security and
issues in the life of rural communities”.
He also warned against the dangers of an exclusively
economic focus in agriculture.
The Pope said farmers cannot focus on “making money above
all else, even at the expense of sacrificing the rhythms of agricultural life,
with its times of work and leisure, its weekly rest and its concern for the
family”.
Pope Francis said ICRA shows that: "It is possible to
combine being Christians with acting as Christians in the concrete
circumstances of agricultural life, where the importance of the human person,
the family and community, and a sense of solidarity represent essential values,
even in situations of significant underdevelopment and poverty.”
He said, “May we never find ourselves “silent witnesses to
terrible injustices”, as can happen when “we think that we can obtain
significant benefits by making the rest of humanity, present and future, pay
the extremely high costs of environmental deterioration” (Laudato Si’, 36).”
In conclusion, Pope Francis said the members of ICRA “are
called to propose a sober lifestyle and a culture of agricultural work that has
its foundations as well as its goals in the centrality of the person, in
openness to others and in gratuitousness.”
(Devin Sean Watkins)
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