“We forget those poor people who are on the borders of countries, looking for freedom, these forced migrants who flee from hunger and war to only find a wall, a wall made of iron, a wall of barbed wire, but a wall that does not let them pass,” Pope Francis said in Casa Santa Marta.
The pope said that there is an abundance of information in our newspapers about the suffering of children who are hungry and who do not have necessary medical or educational resources, yet people remain indifferent.
He called it “the drama of information that does not go to the heart” in which “the heart is detached from the mind.”
Pope Francis compared this indifference to the Gospel parable of Lazarus and the rich man. He said the rich man knew Lazarus’ name, but ignored his needs creating an “abyss” between them both in life and in death.
He noted that Christ calls the poor man in the parable by name, but describes the rich man only with adjectives.
“This is what selfishness does in us: it makes us lose our real identity,” he said. “We have fallen into the culture of adjectives where your value is what you have, what you can do.”
“Today we ask the Lord for the grace not to fall into indifference, the grace that all the information about human suffering we have, will go down into the heart and move us to do something for others,” Pope Francis said.
More than 10,000 people in Italy are currently being treated for COVID-19, the Italian Ministry of Health reported March 11.
In less than three weeks, 827 Italians who contracted the coronavirus have died. The growing rate of infection led the Italian government to implement strict quarantine measures throughout the country.
The nationwide quarantine in Italy restricts movement around the country and between regions, and group gatherings outside of the family are forbidden.
