Visit Bologna: Meeting with workers and Angelus
Pope Francis addresses the crowds outside of the Basilica of St Petronius during a Pastoral Visit to Bologna.- AFP |
(Vatican Radio) Arriving at Bologna following a morning
visit to the town of Cesena, Pope Francis greeted representatives of the world
of labour ahead of the Sunday Angelus.
In his address to works, Pope Francis emphasized that it is
only together that we can come through the present economic crisis and “build
the future.” Only dialogue, he said, can help us find new and effective answers
that can help everyone.
The Holy Father noted that in the region of Bologna, there
has been a long experience of cooperation, an experience “that gives birth to
the fundamental value of solidarity. Solidarity, he said, must never be bent
toward to the logic of financial profit, which would harm the most needy
amongst us. “Seeking a more just society,” he continued, “is not a dream of the
past but a commitment, a work, that today needs everyone” to cooperate.
In particular, the Pope said we must never grow used to the
situation of youth unemployment, and job loss. People must never be treated
merely as statistics.
Speaking to the challenge of fighting poverty, Pope Francis
said we cannot truly help the poor without offering them the possibility of
finding work and dignity. He pointed to the recent “Pact for Work,” which say
all the elements of society, including the Church, “sign a common commitment to
help one another in the search for permanent answers, not charity (It:
elemosine = almsgiving). This, he said, “is an important method that I hope can
bear the hoped-for fruits.”
The economic crisis, the Pope said, “has a European and a
global dimension”; and it is also “an ethical, spiritual, and human crisis.”
And, in strong terms, he says it is rooted in “a betrayal of the common good,
on the part of powerful individuals and groups.” And so, he said, it is
necessary “to take away the centrality of the law of power and assign it to the
person and the common good.” But in order to do so, he continued, it is
necessary to increase opportunities for dignified work.
Pope Francis delivered his address in the piazza in front of
the Basilica of Saint Petronius, known as “Father and Protector.” This saint,
the Pope said, is always represented holding the city in his hands. “From this we
can see physically three constitutive elements of your city,” he said: “the
Church, the Community, and the University.” “When these three elements dialogue
and collaborate among themselves,” he said, “it strengthens the precious
humanism that they express, and the city, so to speak, ‘breathes,’ has a
horizon, and is not afraid to confront the challenges that are present.”
He concluded his address by encouraging those present to
appreciate this humanism “in order to seek wise and far-seeing solutions to the
complex problems of our time, seeing them, yes, as difficulties, but also as
opportunities for growth and improvement.”
Following his address, the Holy Father led the faithful in
the recitation of the Angelus, and afterwards had lunch with the poor in the
Basilica.
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