Franco Pisano

In the message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Francis underlines the choice made by the pandemic for simpler and more sustainable lifestyles, implementing restorative justice towards the countries of the South of the world - exploited by multinationals - and restoring the climate balance.

“The very life of the Church is applied environmentalism,” Bartholomew writes. “The sacraments of the Church, her entire life of worship, her asceticism and community life, the daily life of her faithful, express and generate the deepest respect for creation.”

"The pandemic has highlighted and aggravated social problems". "When the obsession with owning and dominating excludes millions of people from primary goods; when economic and technological inequality is such as to tear the social fabric; and when dependence on unlimited material progress threatens the common home, then we cannot stand by”.

“It is a question of understanding who Christ is for us: the centre of our life and the goal of all our commitment in the Church and society,” Francis said. The Lord shall call us to account for all the migrants who have fallen on their journey of hope, victims of the throwaway culture.”

"The pandemic is a crisis and we emerge from a crisis better or worse", above all we will not emerge without focusing on that preferential option for the poor which "is not a political option", but "the centre of the Gospel". "We can nurture an economy of integral development of the poor and not of welfare. An economy that does not resort to remedies that actually poison society, such as profit dissociated from the creation of decent jobs. This type of profit is dissociated from the real economy, the one that should benefit ordinary people".

Let us ask Our Lady, the Gate of Heaven, for the grace to begin each day by raising our eyes to Heaven, toward God, to say to Him: "Thank you!” as the lowly ones say to the great ones. “Thank you”'". “Today I would like to pray in particular for the difficult situation in Nigeria, hit by terrorism”. Finally, Francis addresses an appeal to Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, involved in negotiations on the Nile, which is a "river of peace".

“At times,” noted Francis, “we look at others as objects, to be used and discarded. In reality this type of perspective blinds and fosters an individualistic and aggressive throw-away culture, which transforms the human being into a consumer good”. By contrast, “the believer, contemplating his or her neighbour as a brother or sister, and not as a stranger, looks at him or her compassionately and empathetically, not contemptuously or with hostility. Contemplating the world in the light of faith, with the help of grace, we strive to develop our creativity and enthusiasm in order to resolve the ordeals of the past.”

“Let us pray for the victims” of the explosions in Beirut as well as Lebanon said the pontiff, “so that, through the dedication of all its social, political and religious elements, it might face this extremely tragic and painful moment and, with the help of the international community, overcome the grave crisis they are experiencing.”

In a message to the young people meeting in Medjugorie, Francis writes that the Mladifest offers them an opportunity to meet the living Jesus Christ. “The Virgin Mary remains the Church’s great model with a young heart, ready to follow Christ with freshness and docility.”

"With the convergent commitment of all political and economic leaders, the labour market can be relaunched: without work, families and society cannot move forward. Let us pray for this, because it is and will be a post-pandemic problem”.

The date is symbolic. On 24 July 1923, Turkey and the Allied powers signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which marked the of the Ottoman Empire. Among the thousands of people who rushed to the first Islamic prayer in Hagia Sophia in 86 years, some carried the flags of the Empire. Others wore the fez, the Ottoman headdress that Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey, had banned in 1925. As part of his drive to build a secular country, he turned Hagia Sophia into a museum.

The National Centre for Disease Control conducted testing between June 27 and July 10. yesterday, India's Health Ministry reported a total of 1.19 million coronavirus cases with nearly 29,000 deaths. The States of Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu are the most affected.