The Pope and the poor

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

“Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor,” with these words, Pope Francis set the tone for his papacy. The Pope has shown he meant what he said by discarding expensive vests in favor of simple white robes, staying in modest housing instead of the papal apartments, and using a Ford Focus instead of the usual Mercedes Benz.

But more than that, Pope Francis has made several statements that back his mission of making the Roman Catholic Church truly a Church of the poor and for the poor. He has called on priests and Catholics all over the world to see the importance of humility and of solidarity with the poor and the needy.

In a meeting with students of Jesuit schools on June 7, 2013, the Pope said: “The times talk to us of so much poverty in the world and this is a scandal. Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry.”

A few days later, in a speech before the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), he said: “A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being.”

In another statement, which rang bells in the capitalist world, Pope Francis said: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

In more blunt words to greedy businessmen and politicians, he said: “I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of [Saint John Chrysostom], one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.”

In another exhortation, he said: “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.”

As Pope Francis visits the Philippines this week, we hope that these words would find meaning among our politicians and businessmen, and hopefully, also among some members of the Philippine clergy.

After all, despite the close to 7% economic growth in the country last year, the fact remains that the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened and that close to 12 million Filipino families consider themselves poor. And that while about 1% of Filipinos wallow in wealth, a big majority of the population flounders in poverty.

Let us listen to the Pope again: “Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.

“The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime, all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

Are the politicians listening, they who promise the poor deliverance during campaigns and ignore them the day after elections, they who continue to burden the poor with exorbitant taxes, to raise MRT and other transport fares in complete disregard of the commuters, or continue to dip into the government’s coffers to line up their own pockets?

Are the businessmen listening, they who raise the prices of their products and services each time their profit margins are threatened, who shortchange their customers at every turn, who cheat the government and the people, and who show no concern for the poor?

Are the wealthy Catholic orders listening, they who build exclusive schools and hospitals that cater to the rich and exclude the poor, who live in mansions and driven in SUVs while millions suffer in shanties and scramble to get a ride each day, and who collect millions of pesos during mass but do not have programs for the poor in their congregations and communities?

“Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid,” Pope Francis also said.

Is the world listening? Are we even listening?

(valabelgas@aol.com)