Saying people and not money create development, Pope Francis called on Thursday for courageous initiatives to rethink our economic system and not become slaves of money. His remarks came in a video message delivered to participants attending a Festival of Social Doctrine in the Italian city of Verona promoted by the local Church.  

The Pope urged people not to become discouraged by the economic crisis but instead turn their energies towards ways of “rethinking our economic model and the world of work.”  He warned that “the great temptation” when faced with these difficulties is to concentrate “on tending our own wounds and use that as an excuse to not heed the cry of the poor” and all those who are suffering because they have lost their jobs and the dignity that goes with that…

Pope Francis has made a heartfelt plea to Israelis and Palestinians to put an end to the violence which has plagued Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land in recent weeks.  His appeal follows an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday in which 2 Palestinian men armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed three U.S.-Israeli rabbis and a British-Israeli man.  An Israeli policeman later died of his wounds…

“Every state of life leads to holiness, always”, but only if we are open to the grace of God’s gift, said Pope Francis Wednesday speaking of the universal call to holiness of all baptized at his general audience.

Below is the Holy Father’s catechesis:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.

A great gift of the Second Vatican Council was to have retrieved a vision of the Church founded on communion, and to have also embodied the principle of authority and hierarchy in this context…