Fighting hunger, underdevelopment, and lack of education, committing ourselves, in addition, to work to eradicate the structural causes that produce them. This is the specific mission of “Manos Unidas – Catholic Committee of the Campaign against World Hunger”, whose permanent commission Pope Francis received on December 9 at the Apostolic Palace.
This association was created in 1959 as a response by the women of Catholic Action in Spain to the call of the FAO, which denounced the “hunger for bread, the hunger for culture and the hunger for God that a large part of humanity is suffering from,” the Pope recalls at the beginning of his speech, highlighting that for 65 years they have been carrying out “the task of helping and contributing to the promotion and progress of developing countries.”
According to data from the same NGO at the beginning of December, more than a million people in America, Africa, and Asia have already managed to change their lives with the generosity and dedication of a solidarity network of 6,500 volunteers, but with the campaign, Francisco stresses leaving the written text, “they barely manage to cover 15% of hunger in the world. It is very hard, very hard.”
He then highlights the work that Manos Unidas carries out, “with the sensitivity and strength of the feminine genius,” in the eradication of “those evils that continue to strike so many nations” and refers to the figure of the Mother of God, because “the Virgin Mary is the Woman par excellence.” And leaving aside the prepared speech again, he adds:
We are accustomed, with this sexist culture, to having women as, I won’t say, as the dog or the cat of the house, but as a second-class human being… And we forget that those who lead the world are women. As some say, “and they are the ones who command.” But that’s fine. But the woman who leads a family, who leads people, who approaches need, that sensitivity so rich in women.
Mary, model to improve our world
“Mary, with her heart rooted in God, continues to be attentive to the needs of her children” assures Francis. “She is the fully realized model of our humanity, through which, by the grace of God, we can all contribute to improving our world.” And that is what Manos Unidas tries to do “thanks to its characteristic and its intuition and reality as mothers, daughters and wives,” carrying out its specific mission: “to fight against hunger, underdevelopment and lack of education” and working to “eradicate the structural causes that produce them.”
This task is only possible with a Christian vision of the human being, based on the Gospel and the Social Doctrine of the Church.
In the Jubilee, reorient our life towards Jesus
Encouraging you to continue forward with “your beautiful mission of volunteering and assistance,” the Pontiff looks to the Jubilee and invites you “to be pilgrims of hope and to reorient your life towards Jesus, also through your contribution to the material improvement, moral progress and spiritual development of the most fragile and needy, to help them achieve a life that responds to the dignity of children of God.”
I hope that this time of Advent, in patient waiting, full of hope for the promises of God, will help us all to achieve a spiritual renewal to contribute to the much desired construction of the civilization of love, in such a way that it allows us to unite our filial love for God with love for our neighbor.
