Upcoming World Day of the Poor

Pope Francis released today his 4^th annual message for the World Day of the Poor on the feast of the Patron of the Poor, St. Anthony of Padua. The day will be celebrated in November. In his message Francis noted that the “pandemic…has made us all the more aware of the presence of the poor in our midst and their need for help.”

#PopeFrancis releases his message for the 4th World Day of the Poor, and calls on people to keep their gaze fixed on the poor, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.#coronavirus #WorldDayOfThePoorhttps://t.co/qqcXzXVMdH

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 13, 2020

Easter Message of Jesuit General Superior

Father Arturo Sosa encouraged everyone with his Easter message. “The crisis of COVID-19…draws our gaze to what oppresses us.” Father Sosa noted that “those who have died because of COVID…are urging us to take the necessary steps to transform our lives, to renew the society that we have built on such shaky foundations, and to rescue the environment that we have treated so badly.” [Full text]

Homeless Are Not Invisible

Pope Francis said in his recent interview

the poor are hidden, because poverty is bashful. In Rome recently, in the midst of the quarantine, a policeman said to a man: “You can’t be on the street, go home.” The response was: “I have no home. I live in the street.” To discover such a large number of people who are on the margins … And we don’t see them, because poverty is bashful. They are there but we don’t see them: they have become part of the landscape; they are things.

In Detroit Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church and the University of Detroit-Mercy are not shy to see the homeless. The Church is home to the Pope Francis Center. The Center made a creative move to keep people healthy and still offer showers to those who are homeless.

The #Jesuits' @popefranciscnt has opened mobile showers in a @detmercy parking lot for the homeless to use during the pandemic. https://t.co/7eQMcuXjoy

— Midwest Jesuits (@MidwestJesuits) April 16, 2020

Auto-Pilot No More

Pope Francis pleads humans move wisely and justly: the way to emerge from the pandemic and into a more integrally lived and shared world.

“I hope that this time of danger will free us from operating on automatic pilot, shake our sleepy consciences and allow a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the center."https://t.co/Pqj32XS1ZX pic.twitter.com/0y3njv7keU

— America Magazine (@americamag) April 12, 2020

Meaning of It

The Pope’s British biographer and Pope Francis conversed. Their conversation was published today. Francis spoke of the “meaning of the coronavirus pandemic.” His biographer, “Austen Ivereigh reveals exclusively to Thinking Faith how the interview—the pope’s first for English-language Catholic publications—came about, and how the pope sees a world in crisis being offered the chance to change.”

[Links to their conversation are at the end of this exclusive.]

Remembering our future: @Pontifex speaks to @austeni about the #corona crisis: https://t.co/0essHuseUF

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 8, 2020

Perspective

The podcast “Fighting Fear In A Coronavirus World” sought to put fear in perspective. Perspective is also an effect of praying, that “indispensable condition” that helps us enact God’s ongoing creative desires. Praise of and thanksgiving to God adjusts our personal perspective; intercession and petition do so as we entrust others to divine care.

Coping in our pandemic includes remembering others, especially those beyond our reach. The peoples of Africa—and others who also lack essential resources (like Haiti and some North and South American locations)—face steeper challenges than those in comfortable circumstances. African leaders are sorely challenged and their peoples grow more frightened. This 2-minute BBC video implores praying. [Not recommended for young children]

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Wiki-image by NASA Africa and Europe from a Million Miles PD-US

Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus

Jesuit General Superior Fr. Arturo Sosa promulgated the Universal Apostolic Preferences for the next decade. He summarized them in this video.            

First World Day of the Poor

Earlier Pope Francis had announced he would dedicate a day to highlight the poor. The first one this Sunday, 19 November. Francis closed his message with his desire that:

this World Day of the Poor a tradition that concretely contributes to evangelization in today’s world. 

This new World Day, therefore, should become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers, allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel.  The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel.

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Image Vatican website

A 15-Minute Week

Catholic Charities and Entergy offered Capitol Hill legislators, staffers and interns an opportunity to “understand the day-to-day life of low-income families.” The active simulation sought to increase empathy among members of Congress in the 50th year since the War on Poverty began. Robert Samuels wrote about the simulation for the Washington Post.

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Wiki-mage President Johnson’s poverty tour in 1964 PD-US