Pope denounces marginalisation of the handicapped
Pope Francis (right) waves to faithfull as he arrives for his audience with participants at the Conference for people with disabilities, promoted by CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference), in Aula Paolo VI at the Vatican, on June 11, 2016. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- The pope told those gathered for the special mass in Saint Peter’s Square that in “an age when care for one’s body has become an obsession and a big business.
VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis, addressing an audience of 20,000 sick and handicapped people at the Vatican on Sunday, decried the marginalisation of those with disabilities, pointing to the way body image has become big business and “anything imperfect has to be hidden away”.
Speaking on the last day of the Vatican’s weekend jubilee for the sick and disabled, he said: “The world does not become better because only apparently ‘perfect’ people live there, but when human solidarity, mutual acceptance and respect increase.”
BIG BUSINESS
The pope told those gathered for the special mass in Saint Peter’s Square that in “an age when care for one’s body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model.”
The crowd of sick and handicapped faithful had come to Rome for the jubilee which ran from Friday to Sunday.
