AMERICA/ARGENTINA - The Bishops: " The bread that is asked for all, achieved through their own labor, is a cry for justice"

Monday, 1 August 2022 poverty work local churches

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Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - "To ask for work is to ask that all workers have the right to live with dignity from the fruit of their daily efforts and to deploy their potential and talents to contribute to the growth of our country". This was stated in the message of the Executive Commission of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, published in view of the feast of St. Cajetan, on 7 August, one of the most heartfelt by the Argentines, in which they ask the Saint for "peace, bread and work".
"Pilgrims of St. Cajetan, we too implore daily bread, as Jesus taught us", the Bishops continue, pointing out that bread "becomes more unattainable every day due to the suffocating inflation that we suffer and that generates misery". They therefore invite us to think of "the growing number of brothers and sisters who come to the soup kitchens every day, of the elderly who cannot buy their medicines, of the families whose income is becoming increasingly insignificant". "The bread that is asked for all, achieved through their own labor, is a cry for justice", they say.
In their message the Bishops also ask for "the bread of fraternity", which is really needed, because society is divided and opposed, it does not realize that "no one is saved alone", it seems impossible to develop common projects, and those who suffer from poverty or even worse misery, is widening more and more. "How good it would do us to dialogue and share the bread of ideas and actions that build a political fraternity, think first of those who suffer most in this crisis and seek honest and realistic solutions that do without the clientelist use of need of the people!" The Bishops point out that "politicians need more than ever an exercise of responsibility that goes beyond their own interests", only in this way will peace and social friendship appear on the horizon".
In the conclusion, the Bishops invite the entire People of God "to unite in prayer for our country, so that we can respond responsibly to the needs of this difficult time", and ask for the intercession of the Mother of Luján to "work together so that daily bread can be found on our Argentine tables". According to Indec (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos), in the second half of 2021 the percentage of Argentine families below the poverty line reached 27.9%, 37.3% of people living below that theshold. 6.1% of households below the poverty line, which includes 8.2% of people. Therefore, in all of the 31 urban agglomerations, below the poverty line there are 2,633,905 families and 10,806,414 people; 578,282 families are below the poverty line and 2,384,106 people are poverty-stricken. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 1/8/2022)