Pope Francis: Not taking care of the common home is a human sin

Pope Francis received in audience this June 5 the participants in the workshop titled “Addressing the debt crisis in the Global South”, promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, to whom he reminded that failing to care for the vulnerable and the common house “is a human sin.”

The Holy Father remarked during this meeting that “people are not served by any form of financing, but rather by that which implies a shared responsibility between those who receive it and those who grant it.”

Likewise, he pointed out that “the benefit that it can bring to a society depends on its conditions, how it is used and the frameworks in which the debt crises that may occur are resolved.”

“After a poorly managed globalization, after the pandemic and wars, we find ourselves facing a debt crisis that mainly affects the countries of the south of the world, generating misery and anguish, and depriving millions of people of the possibility of a dignified future,” lamented the Pontiff.

Consequently, he reiterated that “no government can morally demand that its people suffer deprivations incompatible with human dignity.”

To try to put an end to this situation, Pope Francis highlighted that the creation of a multinational mechanism would be necessary, “based on the solidarity and harmony of peoples, which takes into account the global meaning of the problem and its economic, financial and social”.

“The absence of this mechanism favors ‘every man for himself’, where the weakest always lose,” he pointed out.

Pope Francis also proposed justice and solidarity as a solution, while insisting that it is essential to “act in good faith and with truth, following an international code of conduct with standards of ethical value that protect the negotiations.”

Likewise, he said that “ecological debt and external debt are two sides of the same coin that mortgage the future.”

“The Holy Year of 2025 to which we are heading calls us to open our minds and hearts to be able to untie the knots of those ties that strangle the present, without forgetting that we are only custodians and administrators, and not bosses.”

Later, he encouraged them to act and dream “together in the responsible construction of our common home; “No one can live there with peace of conscience when they know that around them there are multitudes of brothers and sisters who are hungry and also immersed in social exclusion and vulnerability.”

“Letting this pass is a sin, a human sin, even if one does not have faith, it is a social sin. What you are doing here is important, I pray for you,” concluded Pope Francis.