Apr 20, 2017
Although it is Easter season, for much of the world it still feels like Good Friday.
Countless people throughout the world continue to carry painfully heavy crosses – crosses overwhelming due to man's inhumanity to man.
Sin, which starts in each individual human heart, if not repented of, joins with the sins of many, forming a collective critical mass of sin which leads to the building of what St. Pope John Paul called the "structures of sin."
And it is these structures of sin – like unjust government public policies and laws, corporate greed, economic disparity, militarism, the abortion industry and secular cultures devoid of God – with their selfish raw power that condemn billions of human beings to lives of misery and death.
Countless human lives – from the first moment of conception to old age – are of little value not only to the majority of those who control power and wealth, but also to millions of average people. Even many Christians give only token attention to our hurting world. It is what Pope Francis calls a "culture of indifference."
Challenging this indifference the Pope declared, "It is important for the whole church that welcoming the poor and promoting justice not be entrusted solely to 'experts' but be a focus of all pastoral care, of the formation of future priests and religious, and of the ordinary work of all parishes."