ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL PASTORAL CONGRESS ON THE WORLD’S BIG CITIES
Consistory Hall
[…] God continues to speak to us today, as He has always done, through the poor, through those “leftovers”. In general today, big cities are inhabited by numerous migrants, who come from rural areas or from other continents, with other cultures. Even Rome…. The Vicar of Rome could perhaps confirm? So many homeless people everywhere…. They are pilgrims of life, in search of “salvation”, who often have the strength to go forward and fight thanks to the ultimate sense they receive from a simple and profound experience of faith in God. The challenge is twofold: to be hospitable toward the poor and the migrants — in general, cities aren’t, they reject! — and to value their faith. It is quite probable that this faith may be mixed with elements of immanentist and magical thinking, but we must look for it, recognize it, interpret it and certainly also evangelize to it. I have no doubt that in the faith of these men and women there is an enormous potential for evangelization of the urban areas. […]
