VATICAN CITY — An effective proclamation of the Gospel must speak with hope to the real-life problems of the poor, to the need to protect the earth and to the ability of people of good will to change the social and financial systems that harm the poor and the environment, Pope Francis said. “Ten years after the publication of ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), let us reaffirm that only if we listen to the often-silenced cry of the earth and of the poor can we fulfill our evangelizing mission, live the life Jesus proposes to us and contribute to solving the grave problems of humanity,” the pope wrote to a conference marking the anniversary of his first exhortation. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development organized the conference Nov. 24, the anniversary of publication of the exhortation, which was widely described as outlining Pope Francis’ vision for his pontificate. In his message to the conference, the pope said the proclamation of the Gospel today — like it was for the church of the first centuries — “requires of us a prophetic counter-cultural resistance to pagan, hedonistic individualism,” resistance “to a system that kills, excludes and destroys human dignity, resistance to a mentality that isolates, alienates and limits one’s inner life to one’s own interests, distances us from our neighbor and alienates us from God.”
Italian leader says Pope Francis will join G7 discussion on AI Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that Pope Francis would participate in a G7 “outreach” discussion on artificial intelligence when the leaders of the world’s leading industrialized nations countries meet in southern Italy in mid-June.
Seek contact with nature to change polluting lifestyles, pope says Humanity must have more direct contact with nature to counter the modern lifestyles that are destroying the planet, Pope Francis said.
Apostolic nuncio delivers annual Cardinal Bernardin lecture Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, delivered the 2024 Cardinal Bernardin Lecture at Loyola University Chicago on April 11, titled “Pope Francis: Discernment and the Dialectic of Mercy.”