Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Popular Movements

Dear friends, I often remember our meetings: two in the Vatican and one in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, and I confess that this “memory” does me good, brings me closer to you, makes me think back to so many conversations during those meetings and so many hopes that were born and grew there, many of which have become reality. Now, in the midst of this pandemic, I remember you again in a special way and I want to be close to you. In these days of so much anguish and difficulty, many have referred to the pandemic we are suffering with war metaphors. If the fight against Covid is a war, you are a true invisible army that fights in the most dangerous trenches. An exercise that has as its only weapon solidarity , hope and the sense of community that is reviving in these days in which no one is saved alone . You are for me, as I told you in our meetings, true social poets, who from the forgotten peripheries create worthy solutions for the most urgent problems of the excluded. I know that many times this is not recognized as due to you, because for this system you are truly invisible. Market solutions do not reach the outskirts and the protective presence of the State is lacking. And you do not have the means to carry out your function either. You are looked upon with suspicion because you go beyond mere philanthropy through community organization and claim your rights, instead of remaining resigned hoping to see a few crumbs fall from those who hold economic power. Many times you swallow anger and impotence in seeing the inequalities that persist, even in moments when there are no more excuses to justify privileges. But do not withdraw into complaint: roll up your sleeves and continue to work for your families, for your neighborhoods, for the common good. This attitude of yours helps me, questions me and teaches me a lot. I think of the people, especially women, who multiply bread in community soup kitchens by cooking a delicious stew for hundreds of children with two onions and a packet of rice, I think of the sick, I think of the elderly. They never appear in the major media. Nor the peasants and small farmers who continue to cultivate the land to produce healthy food without destroying nature, without accumulating them or speculating on the needs of the people. Know that our Heavenly Father watches you, appreciates you, recognizes you and strengthens you in your option. How difficult it is to stay at home for those who live in small, precarious accommodation or even for those who have no roof over their heads. How difficult it is for migrants, people deprived of freedom and those who are recovering from addictions. You are there, you are physically close to them, to make things less difficult, less painful. I congratulate you and thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope that governments understand that technocratic paradigms (be they state-centric or market-centric) are not enough to address this crisis or the other great problems of humanity. Today more than ever, it is people, communities, peoples who must be at the center, united to care, assist, share. I know that you have been excluded from the benefits of globalization. You do not enjoy those superficial pleasures that anesthetize so many consciences. Nevertheless, you always have to suffer the damage. The evils that afflict everyone, hit you doubly. Many of you live day by day, without any kind of legal protection to protect you. Street vendors, recyclers, carnies, small farmers, workers, tailors, those who carry out assistance activities. You, informal workers, self-employed or in the popular economy, do not have a stable salary to cope with this moment… And quarantines are unbearable for you. Perhaps the time has come to think of a universal wage that recognizes and gives dignity to the noble and irreplaceable work you do; capable of guaranteeing and transforming into reality this very human and very Christian watchword: no worker without rights. I would also like to invite you to think about the “later”, because this storm will end and its serious consequences are already being felt. You are not inexperienced, you have the culture, the methodology, but above all the wisdom that is mixed with the yeast of feeling the pain of others as your own. Let us think about the human development project we yearn for, centered on the protagonism of Peoples in all their diversity and on universal access to those three Ts that you defend: tierra, techo y trabajo, land, roof and work . I hope that this moment of danger will detach us from the automatic pilot, shake our sleeping consciences and allow a humanist and ecological conversion that will put an end to the idolatry of money and put dignity and life at the center. Our civilization, so competitive and individualistic, with its frenetic rhythms of production and consumption, its excessive luxuries and the disproportionate profits for a few, needs to slow down, rethink itself, regenerate itself. You are indispensable builders of this urgent change; moreover, you have an authoritative voice to testify that this is possible. You know crises and privations… that with modesty, dignity, commitment, effort and solidarity you manage to transform into a promise of life for your families and your communities. Continue your struggle and take care of one another as brothers. I pray for you, I pray with you and I ask God the Father to bless you, to fill you with his love and to defend you along the way, giving you that strength that keeps us standing and does not disappoint: hope. Please, pray for me because I need it too. Fraternally, Francis Vatican City, 12 April 2020, Easter Sunday