Millions starve

While in 2019 there were 27 million people on the brink of starvation there were 45 million by 2021. This was announced by the World Food Programme in a front-page article in L’Osservatore Romano on November 8. The report said conflict, climate change and COVID-19 are driving up the numbers. “Fuel costs are up, food prices are soaring, fertilizer is more expensive, and all of this feeds into new crises like the one unfolding now in Afghanistan, as well as long-standing emergencies like Yemen and Syria,” it said.

The Church must evangelise

In his first pastoral letter, Bishop William A. Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee, the US, said evangelisation “is fundamental to who we are as Christians”. “‘The Church exists to evangelise!’ The words of Pope St Paul VI encapsulate the Christian mission. Put simply, if we believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us, and then rose again to set us free from sin and death, we are compelled to share that good news with everyone around us. Evangelisation is a means to awaken in people’s hearts a love of God and an adherence to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Life and crisis

Speaking to members of the Retrouvaille Association, which helps married couples in difficulties, Pope Francis said: “They (the disciples of Emmaus) had not understood that Christ had to suffer and die on the cross, that the crisis is part of the history of salvation... This is important: crisis is part of the history of salvation. And human life is not a life in a laboratory, an aseptic life, immersed in alcohol so there is nothing strange. Human life is a life in crisis, a life with all the problems that come up every day.

“And then Jesus stops to eat with them and spends time with them. To accompany, to spend time without continually looking at the clock. Accompanying means ‘wasting time’ to stay close in situations of crisis. And it often takes a lot of time, it takes patience, respect, it takes willingness... All this is accompanying.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)