Pope Francis called for water for all and praised Argentina’s Water University

ROMA – Pope Francis today called for “drinking water and hygiene services” for all those who still do not benefit from this essential service and particularly thanked those who are working to achieve it in their homeland, Argentina, mentioning the University of Water chaired its Jewish anthropologist friend, Luis Liberman.

“Tomorrow is World Water Day, which invites us to reflect on the value of this wonderful and irreplaceable gift from God,” recalled the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Once again “caged” in the library of the Apostolic Palace due to the new confinement in force in Italy due to the coronavirus and not to lean out of the window of his office for the traditional Sunday prayer of the Angelus, the Pope explained that for believers “sister water It is not a commodity. “It is a universal symbol and a source of life and health. Too many brothers, many, many brothers and sisters have access to scarce and possibly contaminated water! », He denounced. “It is necessary to guarantee drinking water and hygiene services for all,” he said, then thanked and encouraged all those who, with varying professionalism and responsibility, are working for this important objective. “I am thinking, for example, of the University of Water, in my native country, of those who work to make it progress and make people understand the importance of water,” he said. “Thank you very much to you Argentines who work in this University of Water!”, He added, in a surprising mention since Pope Francis does not generally lavish references to his mother country.

Francisco elogió, así, al Instituto Universitario del Agua y el Saneamiento (UIAS) created a fines de enero pasado a través de un decreto del gobierno nacional, que funcionará en el emblemático Palacio de Aguas Corrientes y brindará capacitación universitaria de la grado y matter. Its rector is the anthropologist Luis Liberman, a long-time friend of Jorge Bergoglio, who in February 2017 organized a seminar on the right to water at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, in which the Pope participated. Due to the pandemic, Liberman last year organized a cycle of virtual forums on the right to water with REPAM (Red Eclesial Pan Amazónica, whose president is Brazilian cardinal Claudio Hummes), framed the fifth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si ´, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement (COP 21) and the challenges of the pandemic.

In another order and recalling that today in Italy is celebrated the “Day of memory and commitment to the memory of the innocent victims of the mafias”, Pope Francis condemned the mafias “present in various parts of the world. world which, taking advantage of the pandemic, they enrich themselves with corruption. ”In this context, he recalled that Saint John Paul denounced the“ culture of death ”of the mafias and that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, condemned them as “ways of death.” “These structures of sin, these Mafia structures, contrary to the Gospel of Christ, confuse faith and idolatry,” he explained. “Today we remember them all. victims and renew our commitment against the mafias, ”he concluded.