The Pope urges Europe to grow in faith so as not to be indifferent "to the tragic discarding of human life"

MADRID, 23 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

This Saturday, Pope Francis urged Europe to grow in faith so as not to be insensitive or indifferent "to everything and everyone," such as the "tragic discarding of human life."

"The experience of faith generates above all a leap towards life (...). It is the opposite of a boring heart, insensitive to everything and everyone, even to the tragic discarding of human life, which today is rejected by so many people who emigrate, in so many unborn children and in so many abandoned elderly people", he stated during his homily before 50,000 people in the holy mass he gave in the Velodrome of Marseille, a city that he visited as part of his 44th apostolic journey to participate the 'Mediterranean Encounters'.

The Pontiff has arrived in the popemobile to the venue, which has gathered tens of thousands of people in its surroundings and which has welcomed the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, among other authorities, inside to listen to mass.

Francis asked attendees to ask themselves "with sincerity" if they consider that "God is working" in their lives. "Do we believe that the Lord, in a hidden and often unpredictable way, acts in history, performs wonders and is also working in our societies marked by worldly secularism and a certain religious indifference?", he questioned.

In this sense, he stressed that God "frequently visits through human encounters" and when the heart "does not remain indifferent and insensitive to the wounds of the most fragile", when "something moves within."

Along these lines, he has criticized "cold" hearts that "drag life mechanically, without passion." "And we can get sick from all of this in our European society: cynicism, disenchantment, resignation, uncertainty, a general sense of sadness," she warned.

Likewise, he has indicated that European countries like France, "where different cultures and religions coexist", are a "great challenge against the exasperations of individualism, against the selfishness and closures that produce loneliness and suffering."

"Let us learn from Jesus to be moved by those who live next to us, let us learn from him who, in the face of tired and exhausted crowds, feels compassion and is moved," he cried out in this regard.

In this way, the Pope has insisted that France and Europe need "a new leap of faith, charity and hope", to "find passion" and "rediscover the taste for commitment to fraternity".