Pope Francis, addressing the 29 members of the French bishops’ Catholic Delegation for Cooperation, said: “Do not be afraid to walk the paths of fraternity and to build bridges between people and between peoples, in a world where so many walls are still being raised for fear of others.”

The Catholic Delegation for Cooperation, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, promotes development in over 50 nations.

The Pope also thanked them for making “visible a poor Church with and for the poor”. He said that solidarity is more than a few sporadic acts of generosity. “It presumes the creation of a new mind-set which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.”

‘Quality of life measured in ability to include weakest’

Addressing members of the Capodarco Community, which works with people with disabilities and promotes their inclusion in society, Pope Francis said: “The quality of life within a society is measured in large part by the ability to include the weakest and most in need, respecting their dignity as men and women. And maturity is reached when this inclusion is perceived not as extraordinary, but normal.

“A society that allowed space only to fully functional, completely autonomous and independent people would not be a society worthy of man.

“Discrimination based on efficiency is no less deplorable than that based on race or religion.”

Coptic Christians flee Sinai

Islamic militants murdered Kamel Youssef, a Coptic Christian, who lived in the town of el Arish in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. The militants shot him in front of his family. This was the sixth murder of a Coptic Christian within one month. After an Islamic group vowed to kill Christians in the region, hundreds of Christians are reportedly leaving their homes in the Sinai region to seek security elsewhere.

Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ordered the government to take all necessary measures to help resettle Christians. Government officials met to discuss “the importance of resisting all attempts to sabotage stability and security in Egypt,” said a statement released on the same day. Human rights activists say the displacement is a clear sign the Egyptian government has failed to provide a minimum of security for the minority group in the volatile region, where they have faced public threats before, reports Crux News.

A joint visit to South Sudan?

During his visit to the Anglican Church in Rome, the first such visit by a pope, Pope Francis mentioned the possibility of a visit to South Sudan together with the Archbishop of Canterbury. “My aides and I are studying the possibility of a trip to South Sudan,” Pope Francis said during a question and answer discussion.

The aim of the visit would be to raise the plight of people living in the war-torn and famine stricken country. Reports say that 100,000 face imminent starvation with fami­lies surviving on weeds and water lilies.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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