While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.

Let us keep the flame of faith alive through prayer and the sacraments: let us make sure we do not forget God.

The blood of our Christian brothers is a witness that cries out..If they are Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it is not important : They are Christians. The blood is the same: It is the blood which confesses Christ.

Being a Christian means renouncing ourselves, taking up the cross and carrying it with Jesus. There is no other way.

The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the duty to hear the voice of the poor. It bids us break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and indeed scandalous, social inequalities.

We must walk united with our differences: there is no other way to become one. This is the way of Jesus.

Negative feelings choke the Lord’s word in us.