Here are two different analysis, one in English and one in Spanish , in this historic meeting of two of the world’s most inspiring and important leaders.
POPE-MOVEMENTS Oct-28-2014
Pope urges activists to struggle against ‘structural causes’ of poverty
By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis urged an international gathering of grassroots social activists to struggle against the “structural causes” of poverty and inequality, with a “revolutionary” program drawn from the Gospels.
“The poor no longer wait, they seek to be protagonists, they organize, study, work, demand and, above all, practice that special solidarity that exists among those who suffer, among the poor,” the pope said Oct. 28, to a Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Popular Movements.
The pope said solidarity entails struggling “against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and shelter, the denial of social and labor rights,” and confronting what he called the “empire of money.”
Most of what the pope said recalled his earlier statements on social justice, especially his November 2013 apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), but he delivered the remarks with a strong note of personal encouragement to the activists, telling them: “Today I want to join my voice to yours and accompany you in your struggle.”
Pope Francis said Catholic social teaching defines “land, shelter and work” as “sacred rights,” yet “if I speak of this some people conclude that the pope is a communist.
Deploring the displacement of his “brother peasants” from their “native soil,” the pope warned that traditional rural life is at “risk of extinction.” He also said “financial speculation” on food prices was to blame for the starvation of millions around the world.
“I’ve said and I repeat: a home for every family,” Pope Francis said. “Family and shelter go hand in hand.”
Scorning terms such as “homeless people” as euphemisms, the pope said that, in general, “behind a euphemism lies a crime.”
The pope called for urban planning based on the “authentic and respectful integration” of different communities, and criticized real estate developers who demolish the “poor settlements” typical of cities in underdeveloped countries.
Every neighborhood should have “adequate infrastructure,” include sewers, streets and recreational facilities, he said.
Pope Francis reiterated his earlier criticisms of rising youth unemployment, in Europe and elsewhere, as reflective of a “throwaway culture” that treats people as leftovers. Other examples, he said, include society’s neglect of the aged, low fertility rates, malnourished children and abortion.
Noting that he was addressing representatives of non-unionized workers such as trash pickers, street peddlers and artisans, the pope said “every worker, whether or not part of a formal system of salaried work, has the right to a decent wage, social security and a pension plan.”
The pope said social justice also requires peace and environmental protection, both of which the global economic system inevitably threatens.
“There are economic systems that must make war in order to survive,” he said. “An economic system centered on the god of money also needs to plunder nature, plunder nature, in order to maintain the frenetic pace of consumption inherent in it.
Pope Francis said that he was writing an encyclical on ecology, and promised the activists that the document would reflect their concerns.
The pope acknowledged that the activists sought to replace the current economic and political system with one based on “human dignity,” but warned them to avoid destructive extremism in the process.
“It must be done with courage, but also with intelligence; with tenacity, but without fanaticism; with passion, but without violence,” he said, and recommended that social movements take their “guide of action,” from the Gospels, specifically the beatitudes and the 25th chapter of Matthew, in which Jesus says: “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
At the end of his speech, which lasted more than half an hour, the pope gave the more than 150 activists rosaries he said had been made by “artisans, trash pickers and workers from the popular economic of Latin America.”
In the audience was Bolivian President Evo Morales, an outspoken and controversial critic of globalization, who the Vatican noted was attending not as a head of state but as the leader of a grassroots social movement. Morales was scheduled to meet informally with Pope Francis later the same day.
END
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En presencia del presidente Evo Morales
Encuentro mundial de movimientos populares: una jornada histórica en el Vaticano
Vaticano 27-29/X/14
Ignacio Ramonet
Rebelión
El martes 28 de octubre ha sido una jornada histórica.
Primero porque no es frecuente que el Papa convoque, en el Vaticano, a un Encuentro Mundial de Movimientos Populares en el que participan organizaciones de excluidos y marginados de los cinco continentes, y de todos orígenes étnicos y religiosos: campesinos sin tierras, trabajadores informales urbanos, recicladores, cartoneros, pueblos originarios en lucha, mujeres reclamando derechos, etc… En suma, una Asamblea mundial de los pobres de la Tierra. Pero de los pobres en lucha, no resignados.
Segundo, es menos frecuente aun que el Papa se dirija directamente a ellos, en el Vaticano, diciéndoles que quiere “escuchar la voz de los pobres” porque “los pobres no se conforman con padecer la injusticia sino que luchan contra ella” y que él (el Papa) “los quiere acompañar en esa lucha”. También ha dicho Francisco que “los pobres ya no esperan de brazos cruzados por soluciones que nunca llegan; ahora los pobres quieren ser protagonistas para encontrar ellos mismos una solución a sus problemas” pues “los pobres no son seres resignados, sino protestan” y su protesta « molesta ». Ha dicho que espera que “el viento de la protesta se convierta en vendaval de la esperanza”. Asimismo ha afirmado el Papa: “La solidaridad es una forma de hacer historia”. Y por eso se une al pedido de los pobres que reclaman “tierra, techo y trabajo”, Y ha añadido: “Cuando pido para los necesitados tierra, techo y trabajo, algunos me acusan de que ‘el papa es comunista’! No entienden que la solidaridad con los pobres es la base misma de los Evangelios.”
También ha afirmado Francisco: “La reforma agraria es una necesidad no sólo política sino moral!” Y ha acusado (sin nombrarlo) al neoliberalismo de ser la causa de muchos de los males de hoy: “Todo esto ocurre -ha afirmado- cuando se saca al ser humano del centro del sistema y que en ese centro está ahora el dinero.” “Por eso hay que alzar la voz”, ha repetido. Y ha recordado que “los cristianos tenemos un programa que me atrevería a calificar de revolucionario: las bienaventuranzas del ‘Sermón de la Montana’ del Evangelio según San Mateo.”
Un discurso fuerte, valiente que se inscribe en el filo directo de la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia que el papa ha reivindicado explícitamente. Y en la opción preferencial por los pobres. Hacía mucho tiempo que un Papa no pronunciaba un discurso tan social, tan “progresista” sobre un tema, el de la solidaridad con los pobres, que constituye la base misma de la doctrina cristiana.
Tercero. Todo esto ha sido tanto más importante cuanto que este discurso, el Papa lo ha pronunciado en presencia del Presidente de Bolivia Evo Morales, icono de los movimientos sociales y líder de los pueblos originarios. Un momento más tarde, el Presidente Morales, muy aplaudido, ha tomado la palabra ante el mismo auditorio de movimientos populares en lucha para explicar, con muchos ejemplos, que “el capitalismo que todo lo compra y todo lo vende ha creado una civilización despilfarradora”. Ha insistido en que “hay que refundar la democracia y la política, porque la democracia es el gobierno del pueblo y no el gobierno de los capitales y de los banqueros”. También ha puesto el acento en que “hay que respetar a la Madre Tierra” y oponerse a que “los servicios básicos sean privatizados”.
Ha sugerido a todos los Movimientos Populares aquí reunidos que creen “una gran alianza de los excluidos” para defender los “derechos colectivos”.
El sentimiento general de los participantes, en este inédito Encuentro, es que estas dos intervenciones confirman el enorme liderazgo político y moral, a escala internacional, del Presidente Evo Morales; y el nuevo rol histórico del Papa Francisco, como abanderado solidario de las luchas de los pobres de América Latina y de los marginados del mundo.
Rebelión ha publicado este artículo con el permiso del autor mediante una licencia de Creative Commons respetando su libertad para publicarlo en otras fuentes.