miniZibaldone

To greet, to listen and to support the faith of those simple people From a letter To greet, to listen and to support the faith of those simple people … and, so often, facing the anguish of men and women that want and seek work and do not find it.  I was only able to shake their hands, caress them, look into their tearful pain-ridden eyes, and weep within. Yes, weep, because it is hard in one’s life to come  across a father of a family who wants to work and has no possibility to do so....  But work is so difficult to obtain, especially as we continue to live moments in which the rates of unemployment are significantly high. Bread solves a part of the  problem, but only half of it, because that bread is not the one earned with one’s work. It is one thing to have bread to eat at home and another to bring it home as  the fruit of one’s work. That is what confers dignity....  The wisdom of our people uses a saying to label one who, though able to work, doe...

We might think that slaves no longer exist: they exist. It’s true, people no longer go to Africa to capture them in order to sell them in America, no. But it is in  our cities. And there are these traffickers, these people who treat the working people without justice. From the homily When riches are created by exploiting the people, by those rich people who exploit [others], they take advantage of the work of the people, and those poor people  become slaves. We think of the here and now, the same thing happens all over the world. “I want to work.” “Good, they’ll make you a contract, from September to  June.” Without a pension, without health care… Then they suspend it, and in July and August they have to eat air. And in September, they laugh at you about it. Those  who do that are true bloodsuckers, and they live by spilling the blood of the people who they make slaves of labour.  We consider this drama of today: the exploitation of the people, the blood of...

From an address I have contemplated and I have allowed myself to be gazed upon by She who carries imprinted in her eyes the gaze of all of her children, gathering up the sorrows caused by violence, kidnapping, assassinations, the violence against so many poor people, against so many women. [...]  I desire that this conference [For a World Without the Death Penalty] might give new strength to efforts to abolish the death penalty. An increasing strong opposition to the death penalty, even as an instrument of legitimate social defense, has developed in public opinion, and this is a sign of hope. In fact, modern societies have the ability to effectively control crime without definitively removing from the criminal the possibility of redeeming himself. The issue lies in the context of a perspective on penal justice that is ever more conformed to the dignity of man and God’s design for man and for society. And also penal justice open to the hope of being reintegrated in society. The...

From the letter to the World Economic Forum  The dawn of the so-called “fourth industrial revolution” has been accompanied by a growing sense of the inevitability of a drastic reduction in the number of jobs.  Diminished opportunities for useful and dignified employment, combined with a reduction in social security, are causing a disturbing rise in inequality and poverty in  different countries. Clearly there is a need to create new models of doing business which, while promoting the development of advanced technologies, are also capable  of using them to create dignified work for all, to uphold and consolidate social rights, and to protect the environment. Man must guide technological development,  without letting himself be dominated by it! To all of you I appeal once more: “Do not forget the poor!” This is the primary challenge before you as leaders in the  business world. [...] We must never allow the culture of prosperity to deaden us, to make us...