do not ignore the cry of the poor

After yesterday’s assault on the presidential palace and the announcement of Rajapaksa’s resignation, the Pope asked at the end of the Angelus not to forget the poor. On “Sunday of the sea” he also remembered “the sailors who are stranded in war zones, so that they can return home.”

Vatican City () – After yesterday’s assault on the presidential palace in Colombo, during one of the largest anti-government protests that Sri Lanka has experienced since the economic crisis began, and the subsequent announcement by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that he will resign On July 13, Pope Francis once again called for peace in the country. At the conclusion of today’s Angelus, before a St. Peter’s Square packed with pilgrims, he said “I join the sorrow of the people of Sri Lanka, who continue to suffer the effects of political and economic instability. Together with the bishops of the country, I renew my call for peace and ask the authorities not to ignore the cry of the poor and the needs of the people”.

“I wish to address a special thought to the people of Libya, especially the young and all those who suffer because of the country’s serious social and economic problems – the Pope said afterwards -. I urge everyone to search again for convincing solutions, with the help of the international community, through constructive dialogue and national reconciliation.” The pontiff also did not fail to renew his prayer and “closeness to the Ukrainian people, tormented daily by brutal attacks whose consequences are paid by ordinary people.” “May God show the way to end this senseless war!” he added. Francis then referred to the “Sunday of the Sea” that is celebrated today and reminded all workers in the maritime industry, as well as the many chaplains and volunteers of “Stella Maris”: “I entrust to the Virgin the seafarers who are stranded in war zones, so they can go home.

Before praying the Angelus, Pope Francis had commented on the Gospel of the Sunday liturgy, which today proposes the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10, 25-37). On a passing road, where a brutally beaten and robbed man lies, it was a Samaritan who saw him, took pity on him and stopped to help him. “Let us not forget these words: “he had compassion”; that is what God feels every time he sees us in difficulties, in sin, in misery: “he has compassion”, said the Pope. The evangelist, he continued, is interested in pointing out that he was on a journey. “Therefore, that Samaritan, despite having his own plans and heading for a distant goal, does not look for excuses and allows himself to be challenged by what happens along the way.” “It is significant that the first Christians were called “disciples of the Way” (cf. At 9,2) -he explained-. Indeed, the believer is very much like the Samaritan: like him, he is on a journey, he is a traveler. He knows that he is not a person “who has arrived”, and wants to learn every day by following the Lord Jesus, who said: «I am the Way, the Truth and the Life» (Jn 14, 6) “.

Following in the footsteps of Christ, every man is called to become a wayfarer and to learn, like the Samaritan, to “see” and “have compassion”. The Pope underlined the verb “to see”: “The Gospel educates us to see: it guides each one of us to correctly understand reality, overcoming preconceived ideas and dogmatism day after day.” Secondly, “following Jesus teaches us to have compassion, to be attentive to others, especially to those who suffer, to those most in need, and to intervene like the Samaritan.” In order not to remain alone in blaming others or ourselves, the Holy Father invites us to ask the Lord “to make us come out of our selfish indifference and to put us on the Path. Let us ask him to make us see and have compassion (… ) of those we meet along the way, especially those who suffer and are in need”. In this regard, the pontiff later recalled a recurring dialogue with those who come to talk with him and talk about the subject of alms: “If you give alms without touching reality, without looking the needy in the eye, that alms is for you, not for him,” he explained. Think about this: do I touch the miseries, do I look into the eyes of the people who suffer, the people I help? This is the prayer that I propose to you today: Lord, may I see, may I have compassion, as you see me and have compassion on me”.