Ethical intervention in economy needed – Pope and Patriarch
Pope Francis and ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on Christians to work together to build a culture of solidarity in the face of growing economic inequality and a lack of respect for the human dignity of the poor and of migrants.
The two leaders met privately on May 26 before addressing an international conference sponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, which seeks to promote the teaching of St John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical on social and economic justice.
“The current difficulties and crises within the global economic system have an undeniable ethical dimension,” Pope Francis told some 500 business leaders, theologians and proponents of Catholic social teaching.
The crises clearly “are related to a mentality of egoism and exclusion that has effectively created a culture of waste blind to the human dignity of the most vulnerable”, the Pope said.
A “growing globalisation of indifference” is seen in the uneven pace of development, “not only in materially poorer countries but increasingly amid the opulence of the developed world,” he said. He added it is also obvious in people’s reactions to migrants and refugees.
Sacrament of marriage proclaims ‘love is possible’
Marriage is a sacrament not only for the bride and groom, but for the entire Catholic Church, because it proclaims that “love is possible”, Pope Francis said.
“It is true there are difficulties, there are problems with the children or with the couple themselves – arguments, fights,” he said at morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Seven couples celebrating their 25th or 50th wedding anniversaries were among those present at the Mass.
But the witness of couples who continue in love, who overcome the difficulties, he said, proclaims the beauty of God’s plan for humanity.
In the day’s Gospel reading from St Mark, Jesus is asked by the Pharisees if it is lawful for a husband to divorce his wife.
He said the Pharisees were interested only in trying to trip up Jesus by trying to reduce religion to a list of “yes you can” and “no you can’t” items.
But Jesus raises the bar, talking about creation and describing “marriage as if it were the most beautiful thing” that God made at the beginning of the world, he said.
Pope visits students after school in Italy
Continuing his occasional series of ‘Mercy Friday’ visits, Pope Francis surprised the students at a school renamed in March in honour of a student who died of leukaemia at the age of 11. For the May visit to the Elisa Scala Comprehensive School, which includes students from the age of three to 14, the Pope also brought books for the school library.
Before the city of Rome and the Italian department of education allowed the whole school to be named after Elisa, the library was. Her parents, Giorgio and Maria, said their daughter loved to read and, after she died in 2015, they started the library, which now holds more than 20,000 volumes, all of which were donated.
The couple gave the Pope a guided tour of the shelves.
Pope Francis arrived after classes had ended, but more than 200 students were there preparing for a year-end show featuring dance, sport and theatre. After five months of rehearsals, they sang for the Pope.