Vatican City, 04 October, 2024 / 7:35 pm (ACI Africa).
Closing the first week of meetings, Synod on Synodality participants from different continents put a spotlight on the plight of the world’s poor and vulnerable at a press briefing held in the Vatican on the Oct. 4 feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.
Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, told journalists on Friday that people often forgotten by the wider Church are the poor and vulnerable, including those who are economically disadvantaged, migrants, displaced communities, and women who are excluded or “pushed to the margins into places of poverty and violence.”
In Oceania, Randazzo said several communities living in Pacific Ocean countries that are rich in natural resources are some of “the most vulnerable on the planet” because of exploitation by wealthy companies and nations.
He stated that churches and communities in wealthier countries overly concerned with “niche Church issues” can feel very comfortable and forget vulnerable or oppressed people fighting for survival in other parts of the world.
“Others cannot live, or exist simply, because of people of might and power and authority and wealth decide that those niche issues are the most important ones,” Randazzo said during the Friday press briefing. “Please do not forget the most vulnerable.”
