In the midst of the global financial crisis, "priority should be given to workers and their families," Pope Benedict has said.
Addressing a group of Italian speaking workers from the Fiat factory on Sunday, he said, "I want to express my encouragement to authorities, both political and civil, and also to businessmen, so that with the participation of everyone this delicate moment can be faced."
"I unite myself to the bishops and the respective local Churches to express my closeness to the affected families, and I entrust them in prayer to the protection of Most Holy Mary and St Joseph, patron of workers," the Pope said.
The global economic crisis has also contributed to the delay in the publication of Pope Benedict's new social encyclical, Catholic News Service reports.
If the encyclical "does not deal competently with the economic reality, it cannot be credible," Pope Benedict said last week in response to a question from a priest of the Diocese of Rome.
During the pope's annual question and answer session with more than 400 priests ministering in Rome, a pastor from a poor neighbourhood asked how Church members could do more to push for a real reform of the global economic system.
Pope Benedict said he did not want to give a simplistic answer to a complicated question about the reality of global finance and said that, in fact, the complexity of the current situation is what has delayed the publication of his social encyclical, tentatively titled "Caritas in Veritate" ("Love in Truth").
"As you know, for a long time we have been preparing an encyclical on these points, and on its long journey one can see how difficult it is to speak competently about it," the pope said.
On the level of global economic systems, the pope said almost every person in every country is feeling the consequences of "these fundamental errors that have been revealed in the failure of the large American banks; the error at the basis of it is human greed."
"We must denounce this (system) with courage, but also with concreteness because moralising will not help if it is not supported by an understanding of reality, which also will help us understand what can be done concretely to change the situation," he said.
Pope Benedict said the crisis demonstrates that "original sin really exists. If it did not exist, we could appeal to reason, lucidly, with arguments that are accessible to all and incontestable and to the good will of everyone."
While the global financial system must be reformed, the pope said, individuals also must accept the fact that they will have to make some sacrifices in order to help the poor and move the world toward justice.
"Justice cannot be created only with economic reforms, which are necessary, but it also requires the presence of just people," he said.
"As long as original sin exists, we will never have a radical and total correction" of unjust systems, "but we must do all that we can to achieve at least a provisional, sufficient correction that would permit humanity to live and would be an obstacle to selfishness," Pope Benedict said.
SOURCE
Pontiff: Workers Are Priority in Crisis (Zenit)
Global financial crisis contributes to delay of encyclical, pope says (Catholic News Service)