APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO CHILE AND PERU (15-22 JANUARY 2018) MEETING WITH AUTHORITIES, THE CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS: ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

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The ability to listen proves most important in this nation, whose ethnic, cultural and
historical diversity must be preserved from all partisan spirit or attempts at
domination, and inspire instead our innate ability to replace narrow ideologies with a
healthy concern for the common good (which without being communitarian will never
be a good). It is necessary to listen: to listen to the unemployed, who cannot support
the present, much less the future of their families. To listen to the native peoples,
often forgotten, whose rights and culture need to be protected lest that part of this
nation’s identity and richness be lost. To listen to the migrants who knock on the
doors of this country in search of a better life, but also with the strength and the
hope of helping to build a better future for all. To listen to young people and their
desire for greater opportunities, especially in education, so that they can take active
part in building the Chile they dream of, while at the same time shielding them from
the scourge of drugs that rob the best part of their lives. To listen to the elderly with
their much-needed wisdom and their particular needs. We cannot abandon them.
To listen to children who look out on the world with eyes full of amazement and
innocence, and expect from us concrete answers for a dignified future. Here I feel
bound to express my pain and shame, shame at the irreparable damage caused to
children by some ministers of the Church. I am one with my brother bishops, for it
is right to ask for forgiveness and make every effort to support the victims, even as
we commit ourselves to ensuring that such things do not happen again. […]