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Placing the Paschal Mystery at the center of our lives means feeling compassion for the wounds of Christ crucified, present in the many innocent victims of wars, in attacks on life—from the unborn to the elderly—and in various forms of violence. They are also present in environmental disasters, the unequal distribution of the earth’s goods, human trafficking in all its forms, and the unbridled pursuit of profit, which is a form of idolatry.
Today too, it is necessary to appeal to men and women of good will to share, through almsgiving, their goods with those most in need, as a means of personally participating in building a better world. Charity makes us more human, while hoarding risks making us less human, prisoners of our own selfishness. We can and must go further and consider the structural aspects of our economic life. For this reason, in the midst of Lent this year, from March 26 to 28, I convened a meeting in Assisi with young economists, entrepreneurs, and change-makers, with the aim of building a more just and inclusive economy. As the Church’s Magisterium has often repeated, political life represents an eminent form of charity (cf. Pius XI, Address to the Italian Federation of Catholic University Students, December 18, 1927). The same applies to economic life, which can be approached with the same evangelical spirit, the spirit of the Beatitudes.
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