Pope Francis Expressed Hope that God’s promises “might help us all achieve a spiritual renewal in order to contribute to the longed-for building of the civilization of love”.

Pope Francis met with members of Manos Unidas (“United Hands”) on the 65th anniversary of the group’s foundation,The Holy Father noted that Manos Unidas (the “Catholic Committee for the Campaign against World Hunger”) arose as a response of the women of Catholic Action in Spain to an appeal from the FAO in 1959 to feed the “hunger for bread, culture, and God that a large part of humanity suffers from”.

GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

TO THE DELEGATION OF THE COMMISSION "MANOS UNIDAS''

Monday, 9 December 2024

_____________________________

Mr. Bishop,

sisters and brothers, good morning.

I am happy to welcome you this morning, you who are from the permanent commission of "Manos Unidas - Catholic Committee of the Campaign against Hunger in the World".

This association, founded in 1959 as a response by the women of Catholic Action in Spain to the appeal of the FAO, which denounced the "hunger for bread, the hunger for culture and the hunger for God that afflicts a large part of humanity", has been carrying out the task of helping and contributing to the promotion and progress of developing countries for 65 years. Mrs. McCain, who is carrying out the hunger campaign, was here a couple of months ago and she told me that they, with the whole campaign, barely cover the 15% of the world's hunger. It's very hard, very hard. Thinking about the work that, with the sensitivity and strength of feminine genius, you carry out to eradicate these evils that continue to affect so many nations, I would like to refer to the figure of the Mother of God, whom we celebrate in her Immaculate Conception. Because the Virgin Mary is the Woman par excellence.

With this male chauvinist culture, we are accustomed to seeing women, I don't say as a dog or a cat, but as a second-class human being, and we forget that it is women who carry the world forward and - as some say - they are the ones in charge. That's fine. But the woman who carries a family forward, who carries people forward, who approaches needs, that sensitivity so rich in women.

Mary, with her heart rooted in God, continues to be attentive to the needs of her children, eager to go out to meet them and bring them the consolation of the Lord. She is the fully realized model of our humanity, through which, with the grace of God, we can all contribute to improving our world. This is what you try to do thanks to your characteristic intuition and reality as mothers, daughters and wives, and mothers-in-law.

I will tell you an anecdote that happened here. Mrs. Ursula [von der Leyen], President of the European Commission, is a doctor and mother of 7 children. And one day I said to her — she had solved a very difficult problem, with Belgium, Holland, a lot of money, she had solved it well — and I said to her: “Madam — we were sitting there —, how did you solve it?”. And she started making a gesture with her hands... and she answered: “As we mothers do”. The woman has this genius, the feminine genius. And so, with the compassion and tenacity that characterize the feminine soul, “Manos Unidas”, a public association of the faithful of the Catholic Church in Spain, carries out its specific mission: to fight against hunger, underdevelopment and lack of education, also committing itself to work to eradicate the structural causes that generate these things. This task becomes possible only with a Christian vision of the human being, which has as its foundation the Gospel and the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Sisters and brothers, I encourage you to continue your beautiful mission of volunteering, of assistance, of walking together. Now that we are approaching the Jubilee, I invite you to be pilgrims of hope and to reorient your life towards Jesus, also through your contribution to the material improvement, moral progress and spiritual development of the most fragile and needy, to help them achieve a life that corresponds to the dignity of children of God.

I hope that this time of Advent, in the patient waiting, full of hope in the promises of God, will help us all to achieve a spiritual renewal to contribute to the long-awaited construction of the civilization of love, so that it allows us to unite our filial love for God with love for our neighbor.

May Jesus, in every person you meet and in every person you assist, bless you, and may the Holy Virgin accompany you with her intercession and her maternal love.

And when I confess, I usually ask people, when there is an opportunity: "Do you give alms?" Generally they say yes. "And when you give alms, do you look the person you are giving alms to in the eye? I don't know." “And she touches his hand or tosses a coin and then does this?” If you don’t look the beggar in the eye, if you don’t touch his hand, your alms are worthless, because they don’t come from your heart, but only from your pocket. Preach this: look into the eyes and touch the hand. Thank you.

__________________________________________________

L’Osservatore Romano, Daily Edition, Year CLXIV n. 279, Monday 9 December 2024, p. 11.