FULL TEXT GREETING OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO A DELEGATION OF THE CATHOLIC FOUNDATION OF VERONA
in the Vatican's Consistory Hall on Saturday, 18 January 2025
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Good morning, and welcome!
I am pleased to meet you at the beginning of this year, in which we celebrate the Jubilee of hope. Together, peregrinantes in spem: walking as pilgrims in the world reminds us that we are not its masters, but rather its custodians. This affects all of us: we are called to take care of the common home that the Lord has entrusted to us, that is, to cultivate it and safeguard it according to a wise and respectful rule. To safeguard our common home. The term “economy” means precisely this: a wise “home management”: those who know how to manage their own home, the common home, the social home.
In this regard, your Foundation is active in many social settings. I have learned with pleasure of the initiatives of solidarity, support to voluntary work, and cultural and professional formation to which you devote yourselves. I praise above all those in support of families and young people in collaboration with the diocese of Verona. The resourcefulness and generosity of your work is consistent with the name of the Foundation you represent: Catholic. I encourage you, therefore, to keep going, doing good always and to everyone. Doing something, not standing still; good, doing good; and to everyone, doing good to everyone. It is a good life plan!
Do good always, because constancy rewards those who work faithfully: you know this well, in the field of insurance. To do good to everyone, starting from those most in need, in accordance with the social doctrine of the Church, to which you bear witness in many charitable works.
Let us not forget that money renders the most when it is invested for the benefit of our neighbour. This is important. There is a very bad situation now, with investments. In some countries the investments that give the highest returns are weapons factories: investing to kill. They are mad! This is not for the benefit of the people. And when one does this, against or apart from the benefit of the people, money ages and burdens the heart, making it hard and deaf to the voice of the poor. The first to be rejected out of selfishness are the poor; this is curious. When we put wealth at the service of the dignity of man, we cannot but profit, always: indeed, promoting the common good improves the bonds of the society in which we participate.
Faced with the education and employment emergencies, I urge you to renew constantly your trust in the Providence of God, who guides history with love, calling us to build a future following justice.
I bless you from my heart, and continue to do a good job; do it because this is sowing the future, it is sowing happiness, it is sowing peace. And pray for me, do not forget: but pray for, not against. Thank you.
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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 18 January 2025
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