Pope Francis on Sunday called on everyone to feel responsible and protect the “smallest” and most vulnerable of all people, including the unborn.
Speaking spontaneously to a group of Cuban nuns, priests, seminarians and bishops, the Pope said that Jesus shines in the lives of hidden and ignored people, such as those who suffer from degenerative diseases.
He also referred to prenatal testing that can forecast illnesses in the womb, leading some parents to “return it (the baby) before it comes into the world.”
The Pope, who is in Cuba until Tuesday afternoon, said he wanted to speak off-the-cuff in response to two “prophets,” who spoke before him Sunday evening. One was a nun who works with severely ill children.
Repeating a familiar theme, Francis also called for the church to embrace a “spirit of poverty,” saying that “wealth takes away the best of us.”
“Bad accountants are great for the church, because they make it free, make it poor,” the Pope said. “God wants it to be poor … . Blessed are the poor of the heart, those who aren’t attached to money.”
Later Sunday evening, under a drizzle of rain, Francis urged a crowd of young Cubans in Havana to “open yourself, and dream.”
“Dream that if you give the best of yourself, you’ll help make the world a different place.”
While avoiding overtly political statements, the pontiff also repeated his frequent criticism of a “throwaway culture” and the “idolatry of money.”
“Children aren’t loved, they’re killed before being born,” he said. “The elderly are thrown away, because they don’t produce. Some countries have euthanasia. But in some others there a hidden euthanasia. The youth is thrown away because they have no job opportunities.”
In the prepared remarks that he did not deliver on Sunday but said will be published shortly, the Pope compared communities that don’t argue to an old couple who have lost interest in each other.
“Conflicts and disagreements in the church are to be expected and, I would even say, needed,” said the Pope. “They are a sign that the church is alive and that the spirit is still acting, still enlivening her.”
Such sentiments are a sharp break from Francis’ papal predecessors — Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI — both of whom discouraged dissent within the church.