In his audience with the new ambassadors of Guinea, Latvia, India and Bahrain, the Pope on Thursday,December 17, repeated the appeals he made in his World Day of Peace message, regarding the environment, unemployment, immigrants and prisoners.
The “proliferation of violent conflicts, whether war or terrorism,” over the past year, “is provoking in the most mature consciences a reaction that is not violent, but spiritual and moral,” Francis said in a speech to the new ambassadors of Guinea, Latvia, India and Bahrain accredited to the Holy See, this morning. Francis received the new ambassadors in audience for the presentation of their credentials.
In his speech, the Pope returned to the points he made in his message for the upcoming World Day of Peace on 1 January, which the Vatican published in recent days. Starting with the need “to work together to promote a culture of solidarity that can counter the globalisation of indifference which is sadly one of the negative trends of our time”.
Over the past year, Francis said, there has “unfortunately” been a “proliferation of violent conflicts, whether war or terrorism”. But “this situation is provoking in the most mature consciences a reaction that is not violent, but spiritual and moral. It is this that we want to and must foment with the means at our disposition and according to our responsibilities.”
“The Catholic Church according to its mission [and] with the Jubilee of Mercy that just started, offers itself in all the world to spread the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation,” the Pope pointed out. The principal cause of this growing indifference,” the Pope said, is “an unbalanced humanism, in which man has taken God’s place and has as such fallen victim to various forms of idolatry. The serious ecological crisis we are facing can also be traced back to this anthropological imbalance. Indifference towards God, towards others and towards the environment are interlinked and fuel each other each other; the only way to combat them, is with one solution that tackles all of them at once, in other words with a renewed humanism that restores the correct relationship between human beings and the Creator, others and creation.”
According to the Pope, “the mass media – which influence personal and social attitudes in a significant manner – play a decisive role in this challenge”. It is paramount for investment in schooling to continue. Schooling should not be seen in isolation but in relation to families and a given social context, working together to reinforce an educational alliance that has been weakened in many countries.” The Pope has asked States for “concrete gestures” to help the vulnerable, for example “prisoners, migrants, the unemployed and the sick”: “In this Holy Year, I wish to send out an urgent appeal to leaders of States, to perform concrete gestures for the benefit of our brothers and sisters who are suffering as a result of a lack of work, land and housing.”
Finally, Pope Francis greeted the faithful of Guinea, Latvia, India and Bahrein, encouraging them “to always work together loyally, for the common good of society” and “the more they do this and the better they do it,” he concluded, “the more full religious freedom will truly be guaranteed to them.”
