AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Millions of people in poverty, indifference would be even worse in the face of this situation

Saturday, 13 November 2021 world day of the poor   pope francis   caritas   local churches   coronavirus  

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Bogota (Agenzia Fides) - "Colombia has a very complex situation of poverty, there is an enormous number of people, millions, who eat once a day. Many of them have lost their jobs, others are in conditions of extreme vulnerability", said the Director of the National Secretariat for Social Pastoral Care - Caritas Colombia, Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao Gaviria, describing the situation in the country on the eve of the Fifth World Day of the Poor, which will be celebrated on Sunday, November 14. "Faced with this situation, which we cannot ignore because indifference would be even worse - he continues in the video message sent also to Fides - it is important to dedicate a Sunday in a special way to increase the commitment, all the strength of the Church, to the search for alternatives and paths that are capable of restoring the dignity of the people most affected by this situation".
Recalling the biblical theme proposed by Pope Francis for this Day, "You will always have the poor with you" (Mk 14: 7), Mgr. Henao Gaviria underlined that this expression invites us, on the one hand, to "recognize that we must always identify the presence of the Lord among us through those most in need "and, on the other hand, to recognize" that we are in a world where many people have been impoverished by the effects of the pandemic and where new forms of poverty have appeared".
Monsignor Henao Gaviria also notes that the Pope's message for this day is to put aside individualistic actions and have a more integral vision of everything that means a system, a society, a form of democracy, capable of responding to the conditions of the poorest. "We must take personal measures, but we must also aim for structural actions to change all expressions of society that exclude, marginalize and leave out very vulnerable human groups", concludes the director of Caritas Colombia. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 13/11/2021)


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