Pope laments poverty in Americas on Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Pope Francis celebrated Mass last night in St Peter's Basilica for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas. In his homily the Holy Father reflected on how the feast reminds us that we are not orphans, saying Our Lady teaches us to look on our brothers and sisters with her eyes full of love.

The Holy Father said: "We must learn from her receptive and gentle faith... learn from this faith which knows how to insert itself within history to be salt and light in our lives and in our societies."

In contrast, he lamented the current direction of human society, which he said is "ever more marked by signs of division," calling it "a society of distrust".

"A society which likes to boast of its scientific and technological advances but which has turned a blind and insensitive eye to the thousands of faces which get lost on the way, excluded by the blinding pride of a few."

The Holy Father said: "Our beloved American continent has grown accustomed to seeing thousands and thousands of children and young people on the street, begging and sleeping in train stations or wherever they find space... And they feel that there is no space for them on the 'train of life'".

He said, "In the face of these situations, we need to say with Elizabeth: 'Blessed are you because you believed', and learn from this receptive and servile faith which characterized and characterizes our Mother."

The Pope went on to say the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe reminds us we have a mother.

"Celebrating Mary is, above all, to remember our Mother, to remember that we are not and never will be an orphan people. We have a Mother!... And where there is the Mother, brothers may quarrel but a sense of unity will always prevail."

Pope Francis concluded by saying Mary's faith led her to love and serve.

"Celebrating Mary's memory is to celebrate that we, like her, are called to get up and go towards others with the same vision, with her same bands of mercy, with her same gestures."

Source: Vatican Radio