The Pope: diversity is an asset, it should not be a ground for exclusion and discrimination

Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican City

A message of welcome and love, that is to say “diversity is an asset”, thus going against these logics of exclusion which marginalize the most “fragile”. But it is above all a sign of hope for all these families who are experiencing the birth of a disabled child, so that they do not close in despair. Pope Francis encouraged the mission of Faith and Light (known as Faith and Light), an association founded in the 1970s in France and which extends throughout the world to welcome and support people with intellectual disabilities.

A pilgrimage of more than 50 years

Receiving the members of this Association at the Vatican today, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation, the Pontiff reviewed in his speech this long stretch of road, which began with a pilgrimage to Lourdes at Easter 1971 , and which in half a century it has been shown to be “full of fruit”: “The Holy Spirit has suggested the birth of something that no one had foreseen, namely their communities, in which they celebrate joy. , reconciliation and mutual communion. the light and the strength of the Risen Lord have given hope to so many people who have felt excluded and rejected, sometimes even in the Church. »In many countries on five continents, Faith and Light brought “a message of love and welcome”, the message which is at the “heart of the Gospel”:

The most fragile are considered unnecessary

And yet, underlines the Pope, in the Church and in the world even today “there are many who, in their smallness and their fragility, are forgotten and excluded”. Often, he says, “the most fragile people are rejected in this culture of rejection, they are seen as useless,” so “the prophecy of Faith and Light “It is even more important today to fight against the culture of waste and to remind everyone that diversity is an asset and must never become a ground for exclusion and discrimination.

A sign for families

This is why Pope Francis urges us to continue the “welcoming presence” which characterizes Faith and Light: “May your communities always be places of meeting, of human promotion and of celebration for all those who still feel marginalized and abandoned.

Ecumenical journey

In addition to the past and the present, the Pope looks to the future and invites Faith and Light to continue this “great pilgrimage”, which is also “an ecumenical journey”, because in the communities of the association there are different Christian denominations: Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox. “A sign,” says the Pope, “of communion, a concrete germ of unity. It is precisely the most fragile people who become a source of reconciliation, because they call us all to a path of conversion.

Instruments of peace where there are conflicts

Precisely within Christian communities, the Pope invites us to adopt a “style” which is “the evangelical style of leaven”, therefore “not to isolate and shut up, but to participate in the life of the Church. in parishes and in neighborhoods, bring their experience and witness to God’s option for the little ones, the little ones, the excluded “.

A small boat in the storm

Finally, Pope Francis stops at the “logo”, a boat in a rough sea, as the sun rises from the clouds after the storm, and declares: “During this pandemic, I have remembered several times, in thinking of the evangelical episode of the disciples in the storm, that we are all in the same boat; and that is why I confirm them in your commitment: to be, in the storms that people and families experience, a small boat in which everyone can find their place, with the certainty that the Lord Jesus is in the same boat “.