- The Pope condemned poverty and called for help for the marginalized.
- Leo XIV. he identified social justice as a priority of his pontificate.
- He urged leaders to listen to the needs of the poorest.
- After mass, he had lunch with the poor and refugees.
Pope Leo XIV. condemned poverty on Sunday and called on world leaders and Catholics to reach out to marginalized peopleas the Church celebrates the “Jubilee of the poor”. TASR writes about it according to the AFP agency.
The first US-born pope made social justice a key theme of his pontificate. The Church is “still wounded by old and new forms of poverty” but “hopes to be a ‘mother of the poor, a place of acceptance and justice'”. Lev said during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“I call on heads of state and leaders of nations to listen to the call of the poorest,” urged the Pope. “Without justice, there can be no peace, and the poor remind us of this in many ways. Through migration, as well as through their call, which is often muted by the myth of prosperity and progress, which does not take everyone into account and in fact forgets many individuals and leaves them to their fate.” he said.
In addition to poverty itself, he mentioned “many moral and spiritual situations of poverty” that lead to loneliness. He called on the faithful to “be attentive to others… reach out to the marginalized and witness God’s tenderness.”
Sunday’s Jubilee of the Poor was one of several church celebrations during the Holy Year that attracted pilgrims from all over the world to Rome. It fell on the World Day of the Poor, an annual event started by Francis in 2017. After Mass, Pope Leo was scheduled to have lunch at the Vatican with a group of homeless, refugees and people with disabilities. In Rome, other community events were organized to help the poor.
