((( Don’t go for all this god stuff, religion … but this
pope is pretty good –
I have
consolidated his speech ( left out the local, historical, religious )
Made it
more readable … ( did not add or change anything )…)))
Read it – it’s pretty good -
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Excerpts from -
Pope Francis’ Speech
on the Poor and Indigenous Peoples In Bolivia
---
July 9, 2015 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Pope Francis spoke about the
problems faced by the poor and indigenous peoples at
the Second World Meeting of the
Popular Movements at the Expo Feria Exhibition Centre
in Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
Bolivia .
-
"I wish to join my voice
to yours in calling for land, lodging and labor for all our brothers and
sisters."
-
Good afternoon!
… I have kept you in my thoughts
and prayers.
I am happy to see you again,
here, as you discuss the best ways to overcome the grave situations of
injustice experienced by the excluded throughout our world. …
… I sensed something very
beautiful: fraternity, determination, commitment, a thirst for justice.
Today, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
I sense it once again.
I thank you for that….
…
The Bible tells us that God hears
the cry of his people, and I wish to join my voice to yours in calling for land,
lodging and labor for all our brothers and sisters.
I said it and I repeat it: these
are sacred rights.
It is important, it is well worth
fighting for them.
May the cry of the excluded be
heard in Latin America and throughout the world.
-
1. Let us begin by acknowledging
that change is needed.
… I am speaking about problems
common to all Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole.
…
Do we realize that something is
wrong in a world where there are
so many
farmworkers without land,
so many families
without a home,
so many laborers
without rights,
so many persons
whose dignity is not respected?
Do we realize that something is
wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and acts of fratricidal
violence are taking place on our very doorstep?
Do we realize something is wrong
when the soil, water, air and living creatures of our world are under constant
threat?
So let’s not be afraid to say it:
we need
change; we want change.
… many forms of exclusion and
injustice which you experience
in the
workplace,
in neighborhoods
throughout the
land.
They are many and diverse, just
as many and diverse are the ways in which you confront them.
Yet there is an invisible thread
joining every one of those forms of exclusion: can we recognize it?
These are not isolated issues. I
wonder whether we can see that these destructive realities are part of a system
which has become global.
Do we realize that that system has
imposed the mentality of profit at any price,
with no concern for social exclusion or
the destruction of nature?
If such is the case, I would
insist, let us not be afraid to say it:
we want
change,
real change,
structural
change.
This system is by now
intolerable:
farmworkers find
it intolerable,
laborers find it
intolerable,
communities find
it intolerable,
peoples find it
intolerable …
The earth itself – our sister,
Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable.
-
We want change in our lives, in
our neighborhoods, in our everyday reality.
We want a change which can affect
the entire world, since global interdependence calls for global answers to
local problems.
The globalization of hope, a hope
which springs up from peoples and takes root among the poor, must replace the
globalization of exclusion and indifference!
… I would like to speak of change
in another sense.
Positive change, a change which
is good for us, a change – we can say – which is redemptive.
… : in my different meetings, in
my different travels, I have sensed an expectation, a longing, a yearning for
change, in people throughout the world.
Even within that ever smaller
minority which believes that the present system is beneficial, there is a
widespread sense of dissatisfaction and even despondency.
Many people are hoping for a
change capable of releasing them from the bondage of individualism and the
despondency it spawns.
Time, … seems to be running out;
we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common
home.
Today, the scientific community
realizes what the poor have long told us:
harm, perhaps irreversible harm, is
being done to the ecosystem.
The earth, entire peoples and
individual persons are being brutally punished.
And behind all this pain, death
and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung
of the devil”.
An unfettered pursuit of money
rules.
The service of the common good is
left behind.
Once capital
becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions,
once greed for
money presides over the entire socioeconomic system,
it ruins
society,
it condemns and
enslaves men and women,
it destroys
human fraternity,
it sets people
against one another …
it … puts at
risk our common home.
-
I do not need to go on describing
the evil effects of this subtle dictatorship: you are well aware of them. Nor
is it enough to point to the structural causes of today’s social and
environmental crisis.
We are suffering from an excess
of diagnosis, which at times leads us to multiply words and to revel in
pessimism and negativity.
…
-
What can I do, as collector of
paper, old clothes or used metal, a recycler, about all these problems if I
barely make enough money to put food on the table?
What can I do as a craftsman, a
street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden worker, if I don’t even enjoy workers’
rights?
What can I do, a farmwife, a
native woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the domination of the big
corporations?
What can I do from my little
home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I daily meet with
discrimination and marginalization?
What can be done by
those students,
those young
people,
those activists,
those
missionaries
who come to my neighborhood with
their hearts full of hopes and dreams, but without any real solution for my
problems?
A lot! They can do a lot.
You,
the lowly,
the exploited,
the poor and
underprivileged,
can do, and are doing, a lot.
I would even say that the future
of humanity is in great measure in your own hands, …
Don’t lose heart!
-
2. …
… changes of structure which are not
accompanied by a sincere conversion of mind and heart sooner or later end up in
bureaucratization, corruption and failure. …
Each of us is just one part of a
complex and differentiated whole, interacting in time:
peoples who struggle to find
meaning, a destiny, and to live with dignity, to “live well”.
… you carry out your work
inspired by fraternal love, which you show in opposing social injustice.
When we look into the eyes of the
suffering,
when we see the faces of
the endangered campesino,
the poor
laborer,
the downtrodden
native,
the homeless
family,
the persecuted
migrant,
the unemployed
young person,
the exploited
child,
…
…. when we think of all those
names and faces, our hearts break because of so much sorrow and pain. And we
are deeply moved…. We are moved because “we have seen and heard” not a cold
statistic but the pain of a suffering humanity, our own pain, our own flesh. …
-
… You, dear brothers and sisters,
often work on little things, in local situations, amid forms of injustice which
you do not simply accept but actively resist, standing up to an idolatrous
system which excludes, debases and kills
-
… We do not love concepts or
ideas; we love people…
Commitment, true commitment, is
born of the love of men and women, of children and the elderly, of peoples and
communities… of names and faces which fill our hearts.
From those seeds of hope
patiently sown in the forgotten fringes of our planet,
from those seedlings of a
tenderness which struggles to grow amid the shadows of exclusion, great trees
will spring up, great groves of hope to give oxygen to our world.
-
… It is essential that, along with the defense
of their legitimate rights, peoples and their social organizations be able to
construct a humane alternative to a globalization which excludes.
You are sowers of change.
May God grant you the courage,
joy, perseverance and passion to continue sowing.
Be assured that sooner or later
we will see its fruits.
-
3. Lastly, I would like us all to
consider some important tasks for the present historical moment, since we
desire a positive change for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters.
… We desire change enriched by
the collaboration of governments, popular movements and other social forces.
…
I would like, … to propose three
great tasks which demand a decisive and shared contribution from popular
movements:
-
3.1 The first task is to put the
economy at the service of peoples.
Human beings and nature must not be at
the service of money.
Let us say NO to an economy of
exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service.
That economy
kills.
That economy
excludes.
That economy
destroys Mother Earth.
The economy should not be a
mechanism for accumulating goods,
but rather the proper
administration of our common home.
This entails a commitment to care
for that home and to the fitting distribution of its goods among all.
…
A just economy must create the conditions for
everyone
to be able to
enjoy a childhood without want,
to develop their
talents when young,
to work with
full rights during their active years …
to enjoy a
dignified retirement as they grow older.
It is an economy where human
beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire system of production and
distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs of each individual find
suitable expression in social life.
…
The available resources in our
world,
the fruit of the
intergenerational labors of peoples …
the gifts of creation,
more than suffice for the
integral development of “each man and the whole man”.
… There exists a system with
different aims.
A system which, while
irresponsibly accelerating the pace of production,
while using industrial and
agricultural methods which damage Mother Earth in the name of “productivity”,
continues to deny many millions of our brothers and sisters their most
elementary economic, social and cultural rights.
This system runs counter to the
plan of Jesus.
-
Working for a just distribution
of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy.
It is a moral obligation.
…
It is about giving to the poor
and to peoples what is theirs by right.
The universal destination of
goods is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching.
It is a reality prior to private
property.
Property, especially when it
affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples.
…
It is not enough to let a few
drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never runs over by itself.
…
-
3.2. The second task is to unite
our peoples on the path of peace and justice.
The world’s peoples want to be
artisans of their own destiny.
They want to advance peacefully
towards justice.
They do not want forms of
tutelage or interference by which those with greater power subordinate those
with less.
They want
their culture,
their language,
their social
processes …
their religious
traditions to be respected.
No actual or established power
has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty. …
Despite the progress made, there
are factors which still threaten this equitable human development and restrict
the sovereignty of the countries of the “greater country” and other areas of
our planet.
The new colonialism takes on
different faces.
At times it appears as the
anonymous influence of mammon:
corporations,
loan agencies,
…“free trade”
treaties,
… the imposition
of measures of “austerity”
… always tighten the belt of
workers and the poor.
At other times, under the noble
guise of battling corruption, the narcotics trade and terrorism –
grave evils of our time which
call for coordinated international action –
we see states being saddled with
measures which have little to do with the resolution of these problems and
which not infrequently worsen matters.
Similarly, the monopolizing of
the communications media, which would impose alienating examples of consumerism
and a certain cultural uniformity,
is another one of the forms taken
by the new colonialism.
It is ideological colonialism. …
poor countries are often treated
like “parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel”.
-
Every significant action carried
out in one part of the planet has universal, ecological, social and cultural
repercussions.
Even crime and violence have
become globalized.
…
Colonialism, both old and new,
which reduces poor countries to
mere providers of raw material and cheap labor, engenders violence, poverty,
forced migrations and all the evils which go hand in hand with these, …
That is inequality,
… inequality generates a violence
which no police, military, or intelligence resources can control.
Let us say NO to forms of
colonialism old and new.
Let us say YES to the encounter
between peoples and cultures.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
-
3.3. The third task, perhaps the
most important facing us today, is to defend Mother Earth.
Our common home is being pillaged, laid
waste and harmed with impunity.
Cowardice in defending it is a
grave sin.
We see with growing
disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without
any significant result.
There exists a clear, definite
and pressing ethical imperative to implement what has not yet been done. We
cannot allow certain interests – interests which are global but not universal –
to take over,
to dominate
states and international organizations, …
to continue
destroying creation.
People and their movements are
called to cry out, to mobilize and to demand – peacefully, but firmly – that
appropriate and urgently-needed measures be taken.
I ask you, in the name of God, to
defend Mother Earth.
I have duly addressed this issue
in my Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’.
-
4. In conclusion, I would like to
repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great
leaders, the great powers and the elites.
It is fundamentally in the hands
of peoples and in their ability to organize.
It is in their hands, which can
guide with humility and conviction this process of change.
I am with you.
Let us together say from the
heart:
no family
without lodging,
no rural worker without
land,
no laborer
without rights,
no people
without sovereignty,
no individual
without dignity,
no child without
childhood,
no young person
without a future,
no elderly
person without a venerable old age.
Keep up your struggle and,
please, take great care of Mother Earth.
I pray for you and with you, and
I ask God our Father to accompany you and to bless you, to fill you with his
love and defend you on your way by granting you in abundance that strength
which keeps us on our feet: that strength is hope, the hope which does not
disappoint.
Thank you and I ask you, please,
to pray for me.
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? Pretty good ???
