Pope:

Rome, Sep 24 (EFE) .- Pope Francis assured this Saturday, before nearly a thousand young economists and businessmen from 100 countries of the world gathered in Assisi (central Italy), that it is necessary to “question the development model” current because “the earth burns today” and asked that work be fair for all, “the great challenge of our time”.

The pontiff, who flew by helicopter to participate in the conference “Francis’ economy”, an idea of ​​the pope himself to promote a process of inclusive dialogue and global change towards a new economy, signed a declaration together with the young participants in the who are committed to creating this new, fairer economic system.

After listening to numerous and emotional testimonies from some young people, such as that of an Italian prisoner to whom work in a prison cooperative had “restored his dignity”, Francis asked them to be united to “do great things, even change a system huge and complex like the world economy”.

He then referred to the world’s inability to “guard the planet and peace,” and in the face of this “common home that is falling apart,” it is vital to “transform an economy that kills into an economy of life,” with “a new vision of the environment and the earth”.

“There are many people, companies and institutions that are doing an ecological conversion. We must move forward along this path, and do more (…) it is not enough to put on makeup, we must question the development model,” Francisco assured, emphasizing: “The earth is burning today, and it is today when we must change.”

For the pontiff, “if we talk about ecological transition but we remain within the economic paradigm of the 20th century, which plundered natural resources and the land, what we do will always be insufficient” and emphasized: “It is time for a new courage to abandon fossil energy sources, to accelerate the development of sources with zero or positive impact”.

Sustainability, he added, is a reality with several dimensions, such as the social one, because “the pollution that kills is not only carbon dioxide, inequality also mortally pollutes our planet.”

Relations must also be improved, particularly in the West, where “they are increasingly fragile and fragmented” by a “consumerism that seeks to fill that void”, and to recover spirituality.

In the city of San Francisco, the saint of the poor, the pope wanted to place poverty at “the center” of this new economy that must “look at the world” from the fragile and vulnerable: “a Francis economy cannot limited to working for or with the poor. As long as our system produces waste and we function according to this system, we will be complicit in an economy that kills”.

He also gave three instructions: “Look at the world through the eyes of the poorest (…) and that your daily choices do not produce waste”, “do not forget the workers (…) while creating goods and services, do not forget to create work , good work, work for all”, which he considered “the great challenge of our times and of the future”, and, lastly, converting “luminous” ideas into works.

And he concluded with a prayer: “Father, we ask your forgiveness for having seriously hurt the earth, for not respecting indigenous cultures, for not esteeming and loving the poorest, for creating wealth without communion” and “bless (…) and these young, willing to spend their lives for a great ideal.”

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