Pope Francis: We Have Fallen Into Globalized Indifference
In Lampedusa, Pontiff Stresses Need to Care for Those Suffering
By Junno Arocho Esteves
These two questions, one posed to
Adam after his disobedience and the other to Cain, after killing his brother,
are also asked to us by God, the Pope said during his homily at an open-air
Mass celebrated on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Pope Francis traveled to the
island, located roughly 75 miles from Tunisia, in what was a somber,
penitential visit, focusing his attention on the thousands of African migrants
who enter Italy through Lampedusa in search of a better life. Of the many who
have made the treacherous journey to the Italian island throughout the past
several years, an estimated 20,000 have lost their lives at sea. Prior to his
arrival, the Holy Father laid a wreath in the middle of the ocean to
commemorate those who have perished.
The two questions asked by God, the
Holy Father said at the beginning of his homily, echo today more than ever.
They are questions that call to mind one’s inattentiveness to those who suffer
around us. When humanity loses its bearings, the results are tragedies like the
countless men, women, and children who died at sea.
"Where is your brother?"
His blood cries out to me, says the Lord.” the Holy Father said citing the
first reading. “This is not a question directed to others; it is a question
directed to me, to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were
trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they
were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead
they found death. How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to
find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God!”
The Pope however took the
opportunity to thank the citizens of Lampedusa for their solidarity in the
sufferings of those migrants. Recalling an earlier conversation with an African
immigrant, the Holy Father told the faithful of the plight many suffer at the
hands of traffickers and those who exploit their poverty.
“Today no one in our world feels
responsible; we have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and
sisters,” the Pope stressed. “We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the priest
and the levite whom Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we
see our brother half dead on the side of the road, and perhaps we say to
ourselves: "poor soul…!", and then go on our way. It’s not our
responsibility, and with that we feel reassured, assuaged.”
The Globalization of Indifference
The Holy Father warned of a culture
of comfort that makes one think only of themselves and become deaf to the cries
of those suffering, resulting in a “globalization of indifference.”
“In this globalized world,” the
Pope said, “we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to
the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none
of my business!”
The fruits of this globalized
indifference, he stated, has robbed all of the ability to weep for the
suffering of others, comparing that indifference to the seed of death sown by
Herod in order to protect his own comfort, or what the Holy Father referred to
as “his own soap bubble.” The Pope prayed that God would remove “the part of
Herod that lurks in our hearts” as well as for “the grace to weep over our
indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our world, of our own hearts.”
Concluding his homily, the Holy
Father emphasized the penitential aspect of the day’s liturgy while asking
God’s forgiveness for “our indifference to so many of our brothers and
sisters.”
“Father, we ask your pardon for
those who are complacent and closed amid comforts which have deadened their
hearts,” the Pope prayed. “We beg your forgiveness for those who by their
decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these
tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!”
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