A contemporary message from Pope Francis

From the book Pilgrimage by Mark K. Shriver, p203

Pope Francis, Preached at the Te Deum Mass on May 25 when the new president Nestor Kirchner took office.  The gospel reading told the story of the Good Samaritan.  In his homily he told the audience, including the just sworn-in Kirchner, that “it becomes increasingly apparent that our social and political apathy is turning this land into a desolate road, in which internal disputes and the looting of opportunities are leaving us all marginalized, strewn by the side of the road.” He ended his homily with a call to action:

                We have no right to indifference and to disinterest, nor can we look away.  We cannot “pass by” as they did in the parable.  We have a responsibility regarding the wounded nation and its people.  A new stage starts today in our country, marked very deeply by fragility, the fragility of our poorest and excluded brothers, the fragility of our institutions, the fragility of our social ties…

                Let us take care of the fragility of our wounded country! Each one of us with our wine, our oil and our steed.

                Let us take care of the fragility of our country.  Each one of us praying from their own pocket what is needed so that our country can become true.  A shelter for all, without excluding anybody.

                Let us take care of the fragility of every man, of every woman, of every child and of every elder, with that caring and attentive attitude of the brotherliness of the Good Samaritan.

                (At the Te Deum mass the next year, Bergoglio’s words were even more pointed.) STAY TUNED.