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Pope to US social ministry leaders: Be protagonists of the future

In a message to the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering organized by the USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace, Pope Francis encourages social ministry leaders to “build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity,” and to not be afraid to be “protagonists of history.”

By Christopher Wells

The Jubilee Year, says Pope Francis in a message to the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering (CSMG) in the United States, “is an opportunity to place the challenge of ‘organizing hope’ at the center of the pastoral mission.”

The annual meeting is organized each year by the USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace, in collaboration with ten other departments of the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with twenty national Catholic organizations. The theme of this year’s Gathering “Missionaries of Hope, Advocates for Justice.”

Building bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity

In his message to participants, Pope Francis emphasized that the Church’s pastoral mission calls for “a ‘Church which goes forth,’ being able to sustain ‘with words and actions’ the hope with which so many families have always come to these blessed lands.”

The Pope goes on to express his hope that the CSMG “will become a sign of unity, to ‘build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity”—a challenge he knows they can rise to because, as he explained, “each one of you works very hard to recognize Jesus Christ in those most in need: the excluded, the discarded, the poor, the migrants.”

Protagonists of history

After praising the Church in the United States for its focus on concrete reality rather than abstract ideas, Pope Francis recognizes the service of social ministry leaders, which makes possible “a social dialogue that listens and converses ‘with’ the poor, always ‘at the service of the common good’.”

And he encourages them to not be afraid “to be protagonists of history,” warning that “if we fail to promote social justice, we will not be able to guarantee the dignity of every person, of every person who comes into this world, of every hopeful young person who sets foot in the Americas.”

Continue to be pilgrims of hope

Then, addressing young people taking part in the Gathering, the Holy Father repeats his admonition, “Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope,” reminding them that they are “key to putting an end to this piecemeal war that shakes the earth.”

Finally, Pope Francis encourages all the participants of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering “to have the courage to continue to be pilgrims of hope, as your ancestors were.”

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