10 December 2021 | Address of His Holiness

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO MEMBERS OF THE UNION OF ITALIAN CATHOLIC JURISTS

Hall of Benediction

[…] Never as in these days, as in these times, have Catholic jurists been called
to affirm and protect the rights of the weakest, within an economic and social
system that pretends to include diversity but in reality, systematically excludes
those without a voice. The rights of workers, migrants, the sick, unborn children,
those at the end of their life and the poorest are ever more frequently neglected
and or denied in this throwaway culture. Those who do not have the capacity to
spend and to consume seem to be worth nothing. But to deny fundamental
rights, to deny the right to a dignified life, to physical, psychological and spiritual
care, to a fair wage, is to deny human dignity. We are seeing this: how many
labourers are – excuse the word – “used” to pick fruit or vegetables, and then
paid miserably and thrown out, without any social protection. […]