despondency it spawns.
"Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet
tearing
one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common home. Today, the
scientific community realises what the poor have long told us: harm, perhaps
irreversible harm, is being done to the ecosystem. The earth, entire peoples
and
individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this pain, death
and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called 'the dung
of the devil'. An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common
good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people's
decisions,
once greed for money presides over the entire socio-economic system, it ruins
society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity,
it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk
our common home.
"I do not need to go on describing the evil effects of this subtle
dictatorship: you are well aware of them. Nor is it enough to point to the
structural causes of today's social and environmental crisis. We are suffering
from an excess of diagnosis, which at times leads us to multiply words and to
revel in pessimism and negativity. Looking at the daily news we think that
there
is nothing to be done, except to take care of ourselves and the little circle
of
our family and friends.
"What can I do, as collector of paper, old clothes or used metal, a recycler,
about all these problems if I barely make enough money to put food on the
table?
What can I do as a craftsman, a street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden worker,
if I do not even enjoy workers' rights? What can I do, a farmwife, a native
woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the domination of the big corporations?
What can I do from my little home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I
daily meet with discrimination and marginalisation? What can be done by those
students, those young people, those activists, those missionaries who come to
my
neighbourhood with their hearts full of hopes and dreams, but without any real
solution for my problems? A lot! They can do a lot. You, the lowly, the
exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can do, and are doing, a lot. I would
even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands,
through your ability to organise and carry out creative alternatives, through
your daily efforts to ensure the three 'L's' (labour, lodging, land) and
through
your proactive participation in the great processes of change on the national,
regional and global levels. Don't lose heart!
"You are sowers of change. Here in Bolivia I have heard a phrase which I like:
'process of change'. Change seen not as something which will one day result
from
any one political decision or change in social structure. We know from painful
experience that changes of structure which are not accompanied by a sincere
conversion of mind and heart sooner or later end up in bureaucratisation,
corruption and failure. That is why I like the image of a 'process', where the
drive to sow, to water seeds which others will see sprout, replaces the
ambition
to occupy every available position of power and to see immediate results. Each
of us is just one part of a complex and differentiated whole, interacting in
time: peoples who struggle to find meaning, a destiny, and to live with
dignity,
to 'live well'.
"As members of popular movements, you carry out your work inspired by
fraternal
love, which you show in opposing social injustice. When we look into the eyes
of
the suffering, when we see the faces of the endangered campesino, the poor
labourer, the downtrodden native, the homeless family, the persecuted migrant,
the unemployed young person, the exploited child, the mother who lost her child
in a shoot-out because the barrio was occupied by drug dealers, the father who
lost his daughter to enslavement. When we think of all those names and faces,
our hearts break because of so much sorrow and pain. And we are deeply moved.
We
are moved because 'we have seen and heard' not a cold statistic but the pain of
a suffering humanity, our own pain, our own flesh. This is something quite
different than abstract theorising or eloquent indignation. It moves us; it
makes us attentive to others in an effort to move forward together. That
emotion
which turns into community action is not something which can be understood by
reason alone: it has a surplus of meaning which only peoples understand, and it
gives a special feel to genuine popular movements.
"Each day you are caught up in the storms of people's lives. You have told me
about their causes, you have shared your own struggles with me, and I thank you
for that. You, dear brothers and sisters, often work on little things, in local
situations, amid forms of injustice which you do not simply accept but actively
resist, standing up to an idolatrous system which excludes, debases and kills.
I
have seen you work tirelessly for the soil and crops of campesinos, for their
lands and communities, for a more dignified local economy, for the urbanisation
of their homes and settlements; you have helped them build their own homes and
develop neighbourhood infrastructures. You have also promoted any number of
community activities aimed at reaffirming so elementary and undeniably
necessary
a right as that of the three 'L's': land, lodging and labour.
"This rootedness in the barrio, the land, the office, the labour union, this
ability to see yourselves in the faces of others, this daily proximity to their
share of troubles and their little acts of heroism: this is what enables you to
practice the commandment of love, not on the basis of ideas or concepts, but
rather on the basis of genuine interpersonal encounter. We do not love concepts
or ideas; we love people. Commitment, true commitment, is born of the love of
men and women, of children and the elderly, of peoples and communities, of
names
and faces which fill our hearts. From those seeds of hope patiently sown in the
forgotten fringes of our planet, from those seedlings of a tenderness which
struggles to grow amid the shadows of exclusion, great trees will spring up,
great groves of hope to give oxygen to our world.
"So I am pleased to see that you are working at close hand to care for those
seedlings, but at the same time, with a broader perspective, to protect the
entire forest. Your work is carried out against a horizon which, while
concentrating on your own specific area, also aims to resolve at their root the
more general problems of poverty, inequality and exclusion. I congratulate you
on this. It is essential that, along with the defence of their legitimate
rights, peoples and their social organisations be able to construct a humane
alternative to a globalisation which excludes. You are sowers of change. May
God
grant you the courage, joy, perseverance and passion to continue sowing. Be
assured that sooner or later we will see its fruits. Of the leadership I ask
this: be creative and never stop being rooted in local realities, since the
father of lies is able to usurp noble words, to promote intellectual fads and
to
adopt ideological stances. But if you build on solid foundations, on real needs
and on the lived experience of your brothers and sisters, of campesinos and
natives, of excluded workers and marginalised families, you will surely be on
the right path.
"The Church cannot and must not remain aloof from this process in her
proclamation of the Gospel. Many priests and pastoral workers carry out an
enormous work of accompanying and promoting the excluded throughout the world,
alongside cooperatives, favouring businesses, providing housing, working
generously in the fields of health, sports and education. I am convinced that
respectful cooperation with the popular movements can revitalise these efforts
and strengthen processes of change.
"Let us always have at heart the Virgin Mary, a humble girl from small people
lost on the fringes of a great empire, a homeless mother who could turn a
stable
for beasts into a home for Jesus with just a few swaddling clothes and much
tenderness. Mary is a sign of hope for peoples suffering the birth pangs of
justice. I pray that Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of Bolivia, will allow
this meeting of ours to be a leaven of change.
"Lastly, I would like us all to consider some important tasks for the present
historical moment, since we desire a positive change for the benefit of all our
brothers and sisters. We know this. We desire change enriched by the
collaboration of governments, popular movements and other social forces. This
too we know. But it is not so easy to define the content of change - in other
words, a social program which can embody this project of fraternity and justice
which we are seeking. So do not expect a recipe from this Pope. Neither the
Pope
nor the Church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social reality or the
proposal of solutions to contemporary issues. I dare say that no recipe exists.
History is made by each generation as it follows in the footsteps of those
preceding it, as it seeks its own path and respects the values which God has
placed in the human heart. I would like, all the same, to propose three great
tasks which demand a decisive and shared contribution from popular movements.
"The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. Human beings
and nature must not be at the service of money. Let us say 'no' to an economy
of
exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy
kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth. The economy
should not be a mechanism for accumulating goods, but rather the proper
administration of our common home. This entails a commitment to care for that
home and to the fitting distribution of its goods among all. It is not only
about ensuring a supply of food or 'decent sustenance'. Nor, although this is
already a great step forward, is it to guarantee the three 'L's' of land,
lodging and labour for which you are working. A truly communitarian economy,
one
might say an economy of Christian inspiration, must ensure peoples' dignity and
their 'general, temporal welfare and prosperity'. This includes the three
'L's',
but also access to education, health care, new technologies, artistic and
cultural manifestations, communications, sports and recreation. A just economy
must create the conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without
want, to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during
their
active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow older. It is an
economy where human beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire system
of production and distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs of
each individual find suitable expression in social life. You, and other peoples
as well, sum up this desire in a simple and beautiful expression: 'to live
well'.
"Such an economy is not only desirable and necessary, but also possible. It is
no utopia or chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it.
The available resources in our world, the fruit of the intergenerational
labours
of peoples and the gifts of creation, more than suffice for the integral
development of 'each man and the whole man'. The problem is of another kind.
There exists a system with different aims. A system which, while irresponsibly
accelerating the pace of production, while using industrial and agricultural
methods which damage Mother Earth in the name of 'productivity', continues to
deny many millions of our brothers and sisters their most elementary economic,
social and cultural rights. This system runs counter to the plan of Jesus.
"Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labour
is
not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the
responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment. It is about giving to the
poor and to peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods
is not a figure of speech found in the Church's social teaching. It is a
reality
prior to private property. Property, especially when it affects natural
resources, must always serve the needs of peoples. And those needs are not
restricted to consumption. It is not enough to let a few drops fall whenever
the
--- MPost/386 v1.21
* Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)
|
