Education, work, and access to health care for all are key elements for development and the just distribution of goods, for the attainment of social justice, for membership in society, and for free and responsible participation in political life.

The emptier a person's heart is, the more he or she needs to buy, own, and consume.

If money and material things become the center of our lives, they seize us and make us slaves.

Some people believe that - pardon my language - in order to be good Catholics, we should be like rabbits. No.

There is another important point: encountering the poor. If we step outside ourselves we find poverty. Today-it sickens the heart to say so-the discovery of a tramp who has died of the cold is not news. Today what counts as news is, maybe, a scandal. A scandal: ah, that is news! Today, the thought that a great many children do not have food to eat is not news. This is serious, this is serious! We cannot put up with this! Yet that is how things are. We cannot become starched Christians, those over-educated Christians who speak of theological matters as they calmly sip their tea.

Being a Christian is not just about following commandments: it is about letting Christ take possession of our lives and transform them.

We must not let ourselves fall into the vortex of pessimism. Faith can move mountains!