Pope Francis denounces that work is often hostage to social injustice

Pope Francis denounced today that work is “often hostage to social injustice” when speaking of the victims of workplace accidents and those paid in black and recalled that “it is a fundamental right and duty of the person”, during the general audience.

Francisco dedicated the catechesis to the figure of Saint Joseph and his work as a carpenter: “This biographical fact of Joseph and Jesus makes me think of all the workers in the world, particularly those who do hard work in the mines and in certain factories, “he said.

He also recalled “those who are exploited with black work; the victims of work; the children who are forced to work and those who rummage through the dumps in search of something useful to exchange”, and who is unemployed, “the that they feel rightly wounded in their dignity because they cannot find a job “.

What gives dignity, he stressed, is not “bringing bread home” but “earning bread” and added that “if we do not give people the ability to earn bread, it is a social injustice.”

“Many young people, many fathers and many mothers live the drama of not having a job that allows them to live serenely. And many times the search becomes so dramatic that it leads them to the point of losing all hope and desire for life,” said Francisco .

He affirmed that in these moments of pandemic “many people have lost their jobs and some, crushed by an unbearable weight, have reached the point of taking their own lives” and asked the faithful gathered in the Paul VI classroom for a moment of silence “for these desperate men and women because they can’t find work. “

And then he regretted that “the fact that work is an essential component in human life, and also in the path of sanctification, is not sufficiently taken into account” and that “unfortunately work is often held hostage to social injustice and , rather than being a means of humanization, it becomes an existential periphery “.

He also asked the Church to contribute so that work “is rescued from the logic of mere benefit and can be lived as a fundamental right and duty of the person, which expresses and increases their dignity.” (I)