Pope Francis has written a letter, dated March 2 and released March 20, to participants in the Semana Social Brasileira [Brazilian Social Week], organized by the Brazilian bishops’ Episcopal Pastoral Commission for Socio-Transformative Action.
The theme of the week—the sixth such event since 1991—is “the Brazil we want, the good life of peoples.”
Pope Francis praised the participants for their commitment to “breaking down the walls of rejection and indifference, accompanying the poorest and those most deprived of their basic rights in their struggle for land, housing and work.”
The Pope added, “Let us try to see in those who are forced to live in misery, as a result of social injustices, the face of Jesus who urges us not to remain indifferent, because, as He Himself said: ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’” (Mt. 25:40).