turn, about a few other keys: keys to our life in society, beginning with   
   family   
   life.   
    "Our society benefits when each person and social group feels truly at home.   
   In   
   a family, parents, grandparents and children feel at home; no one is excluded.   
   If someone has a problem, even a serious one, even if he brought it upon   
   himself, the rest of the family comes to his assistance; they support him. His   
   problems are theirs. Should it not be the same in society? Our relationships in   
   society and political life, though, are often based on confrontation and the   
   attempt to eliminate our opponents. My position, my ideas and my plans will   
   move   
   forward if I can prevail over others and impose my will. Is this the way a   
   family should be? In families, everyone contributes to the common purpose,   
   everyone works for the common good, not denying each person's individuality but   
   encouraging and supporting it. The joys and sorrows of each are felt by all.   
   That is what it means to be a family! If only we could view our political   
   opponents or neighbours in the same way we view our children or our spouse,   
   mother or father! Do we love our society? Do we love our country, the community   
   which we are trying to build? Do we love it in the abstract, in theory? Let us   
   love it by our actions more than by our words! In every person, in concrete   
   situations, in our life together, love always leads to communication, never to   
   isolation. St. Ignatius - allow me a publicity break - St. Ignatius told us in   
   the Exercises that love is shown more through works than words. Le us love   
   society in our works rather than in our words! And he also told us that love   
   always communicates, it tends towards communication rather than isolation. Two   
   criteria that can help us to look upon society with new eyes. Not only to look   
   at it; to feel it, think it, touch it, love it".   
    "This feeling can give rise to small gestures which strengthen personal bonds.   
   I have often spoken of the importance of the family as the primary cell of   
   society. In the family, we find the basic values of love, fraternity and mutual   
   respect, which translate into essential values for society as a whole:   
   gratitude, solidarity and subsidiarity".   
    "Parents know that all their children are equally loved, even though each has   
   his or her own character. But when children refuse to share what they have   
   freely received, this relationship breaks down. The love of their parents helps   
   children to overcome their selfishness, to learn to live with others, to yield   
   and be patient. In the wider life of society we come to see that   
   'gratuitousness' is not something extra, but rather a necessary condition of   
   justice. Who we are, and what we have, has been given to us so that we can   
   place   
   it at the service of others. Our task is to make it bear fruit in good works.   
   The goods of the earth are meant for everyone, and however much someone may   
   parade his property, it has a social mortgage. In this way we move beyond   
   purely   
   economic justice, based on commerce, towards social justice, which upholds the   
   fundamental human right to a dignified life. The tapping of natural resources,   
   which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term   
   benefits. As stewards of these riches which we have received, we have an   
   obligation toward society as a whole and towards future generations. We cannot   
   bequeath this heritage to them without proper care for the environment, without   
   a sense of gratuitousness born of our contemplation of the created world. Among   
   us today are some of our brothers and sisters representing the indigenous   
   peoples of the Equatorial Amazon. That region is one of the 'richest areas both   
   in the number of species and in endemic, rare or less protected species... it   
   requires greater protection because of its immense importance for the global   
   ecosystem ... it possesses an enormously complex biodiversity which is almost   
   impossible to appreciate fully, yet when [such woodlands] are burned down or   
   levelled for purposes of cultivation, within the space of a few years countless   
   species are lost and the areas frequently become arid wastelands'. Ecuador -   
   together with other countries bordering the Amazon - has an opportunity to   
   become a teacher of integral ecology. We received this world as an inheritance   
   from past generations, but also as a loan from future generations, to whom we   
   will have to return it. In an improved condition. And this is gratuity!"   
    "Out of the family's experience of fraternity is born solidarity in society,   
   which does not only consist in giving to those in need, but in feeling   
   responsible for one another. If we see others as our brothers and sisters, then   
   no one can be left out or set aside. Ecuador, like many Latin American nations,   
   is now experiencing profound social and cultural changes, new challenges which   
   need to be faced by every sector of society. Migration, overcrowded cities,   
   consumerism, crises in the family, unemployment and pockets of poverty: all   
   these factors create uncertainty and tensions which threaten social harmony.   
   Laws and regulations, as well as social planning, need to aim at inclusion,   
   create opportunities for dialogue and encounter, while leaving behind all forms   
   of repression, excessive control or loss of freedom as painful past memories.   
   Hoping in a better future calls for offering real opportunities to people,   
   especially young people, creating employment, and ensuring an economic growth   
   which is shared by all (rather than simply existing on paper, in macroeconomic   
   statistics), and promoting a sustainable development capable of generating a   
   solid and cohesive social fabric. Without solidarity this is impossible.   
    I referred to the young and to the lack of work. Worldwide, this is alarming.   
   European countries which were at a high level a few decades ago are now   
   experiencing rates of 40 to 50 per cent unemployment among the young   
   population,   
   those aged 25 or below. Without solidarity this cannot be resolved. I said to   
   the Salesians [in Turin], 'Your institution was founded by Don Bosco to   
   educate,   
   to give emergency education to those young people today who have no work!' Why?   
   Emergency, to prepare them for those little jobs that give them the dignity of   
   bringing home bread for the table. For these young unemployed, those whom we   
   call the 'neither nor' - they neither study nor work - what prospects are left?   
   Dependency, sadness, depression, suicide - the statistics on suicide among the   
   young are not fully published - or to enlist in projects of social madness that   
   at least offer them an ideal? Today we are asked to take care, in a special   
   way,   
   with solidarity, of this third sector of exclusion of the throwaway culture.   
   The   
   first are children, because either they are unwanted - there are developed   
   countries where the birthrate is almost at zero per cent - or they are killed   
   before they are born. Then there are the elderly, abandoned and left,   
   forgetting   
   that they are the wisdom and memory of their people. They are discarded. And   
   now   
   it is the turn of the young. Who has taken their place? The servants of   
   selfishness, the god of money at the centre of a system that crushes everyone.   
    "Finally, the respect for others which we learn in the family finds social   
   expression in subsidiarity. To recognise that our choices are not necessarily   
   the only legitimate ones is a healthy exercise in humility. In acknowledging   
   the   
   goodness inherent in others, even with their limitations, we see the richness   
   present in diversity and the value of complementarity. Individuals and groups   
   have the right to go their own way, even though they may sometimes make   
   mistakes. In full respect for that freedom, civil society is called to help   
   each   
   person and social organisation to take up its specific role and thus contribute   
   to the common good. Dialogue is needed and is fundamental for arriving at the   
   truth, which cannot be imposed, but sought with a sincere and critical spirit.   
   In a participatory democracy, each social group, indigenous peoples,   
   Afro-Ecuadorians, women, civic associations and those engaged in public service   
   are all indispensable participants in this dialogue. The walls, patios and   
   cloisters of this city eloquently make this point: rooted in elements of Incan   
   and Caranqui culture, beautiful in their proportions and shapes, boldly and   
   strikingly combining different styles, the works of art produced by the 'Quito   
   school' sum up that great dialogue, with its successes and failures, which is   
   Ecuador's history. Today we see how beautiful it is. If the past was marked by   
   errors and abuses - how can we deny it! - we can say that the amalgamation   
   which   
   resulted radiates such exuberance that we can look to the future with great   
   hope.   
    "The Church wishes for her part to cooperate in the pursuit of the common   
   good,   
   through her social and educational works, promoting ethical and spiritual   
   values, and serving as a prophetic sign which brings a ray of light and hope to   
   all, especially those most in need. Many people ask me, 'Father, why do you   
   speak so much about the needy, about people in need, excluded people, those   
   left   
   by the wayside?'. It is simply because this reality, and the response to this   
   reality, is at the heart of the Gospel. And precisely because the attitude with   
   which we must face this reality is inscribed in the protocol on which we will   
   be   
   judged, in Matthew 25".   
    Francis concluded, "Thank you for being here, for listening to me. I ask you   
   please to carry my words of encouragement to the different communities and   
   groups which you represent. May the Lord grant that the civil society which you   
   represent may always be a fitting setting for experiencing and practising these   
   values of gratuity, solidarity and subsidiarity".   
    The Holy Father ended his day with a visit to the Church of the Society, the   
   Society of Jesus' first temple in Ecuador, built between 1605 and 1765, and one   
   of the most important architectural icons of the New World, a UNESCO World   
   Heritage Site. Along with some Jesuits from the community, he prayed privately   
   before the image of Our Lady of Sorrows. The visit lasted around half an hour,   
   after which the Pope transferred by car to the apostolic nuncio where he spent   
   the night.   
    Today, 8 July, the Pope is scheduled to meet with the elderly in the   
   Missionaries of Charity rest home in Tumbaco, and with the clergy in the El   
   Quinche national Marian shrine. From there, the Pope will travel to Quito   
   airport where he will depart for Bolivia, the second phase of his apostolic   
   trip   
   in Latin America.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 8 July 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Jose   
   Luiz Gomes de Vasconcelos as bishop of Sobral (area 17,634, population 962,000,   
   Catholics 815,000, priests 71, religious 114), Brazil. He is currently   
   auxiliary   
   of the archdiocese of Fortaleza, Brazil, and apostolic administrator of the   
   diocese of Sobral.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:   
   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
   Copyright (VIS):  the news contained in the services of the Vatican   
   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
   the source:  V. I. S. - Vatican Information Service.   
   http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/vis/vis_en.html   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)