Pope Francis yesterday began the New Year very much on message, highlighting the social injustice of the rich-poor, north-south divide. Not for the first time in this pontificate, Francis chose to focus his teaching on the Church’s commitment to the poor and downtrodden, rather than highlight controversial issues such as abortion, contraception or same-sex marriage.
Speaking yesterday at his traditional January 1st Angelus in a packed St Peter's Square, Francis "consigned" his message for the World Day of Peace to the 80,000 to 90,000 strong crowd of tourists and faithful. As usual, Francis spoke from the window of his uninhabited papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace.
Teacher mode
The Pope opened up his homily with an enthusiastic “Good
day and happy new year,” and he concluded it with “have a good Sunday, a good beginning to the year and a good lunch”. In between times, however, he moved into teacher mode, reminding the faithful that Catholics place their hopes in Mary, Mother of God, underlining the point by calling on the crowd to repeat three times with him, “Santa Madre Di Dio” (Holy Mother of God).
Francis had begun the holiday period highlighting the problems of Syria, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo in his Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi address to the world. Last weekend, too, the Vatican received a delegation from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, led by Syrian government minister Joseph Sweid.
Although the contents of the Vatican-Syrian exchange were not made public, it is significant that the Syrian minister met the Vatican’s two most senior diplomats, secretary of state, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, and foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.
Yesterday, Francis highlighted his concerns about global injustice in his Message for Peace, a document that popes have issued every January 1st since 1968.
He called on "richer nations to assist the less developed" and condemned "the widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs". He highlighted the "relative poverty" that denies people "access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology".
Dissident voices
“The fundamental reason [for this
message] is the conviction that we are all children of one heavenly father, we are all part of the same human family and we all share a common destiny,” he said.
Intriguingly, given that there have already been dissident voices accusing Francis of preaching some form of “communism”, the message made reference throughout to the social-justice teachings of predecessors John XXIII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.