Pope: Giving marginalized people hope is key to peace

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Nations should put people affected by poverty, illness, migration and other marginalized groups at the heart of social and economic considerations during the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis said.

"The poor and the sick, the young and the elderly, the migrants and the displaced, even those deprived of their freedom, must be at the center of our considerations, so that no one is excluded and everyone's human dignity is respected," the pope told participants in a conference on peace and dialogue in Havana, Cuba.

The conference, titled "For World Balance," gathered writers, artists, politicians, academics and religious and social leaders to explore avenues toward promoting global solidarity.

In his message, released by the Vatican Jan. 28, Pope Francis said that the Holy Year must be a time when people can overcome the obstacles that prevent them from looking to the future with hope.

The Jubilee offers a unique opportunity for humanity to focus on "all that is good in the world so as to not be tempted to consider ourselves overcome by evil and violence," he said, citing his bull of indiction formally proclaiming the Holy Year.

Pope Francis called for the Holy Year to be a time for people to work courageously to turn hope into a tangible and lasting peace through dialogue and diplomacy.

Such an objective is not possible, he said, if people are "prevented from opening up to life with enthusiasm by the frenetic pace of life, by fears about the future, by the lack of job guarantees and adequate social protection (or) by social models whose agenda is dictated by the search for profit rather than by the care of relationships."

The pope praised initiatives and volunteers working to restore people's confidence in themselves and in society, and he said that all people, including those without a religious identity, are called to live in selfless fraternity since "everything we do for others has repercussions for us as individuals and as a society."

He urged everyone to cultivate hope by building a society rooted in solidarity -- one that shares generously with the poor and embraces the stranger -- "so that we may know how to contribute with what we are and what we have to the common good."