Card. Lluís Martínez Sistach, ex-bishop of Barcelona, presented the Second International Congress on Pastoral Care in Large Cities.
The event will be held in Rio de Janeiro from July 13-15 and the goal is to promote a new attitude in the Church when facing the challenge of humanizing life in big cities. It is estimated that in 2050 the population living in urban centers will rise from 54 to 66 percent.
CARD. LLUÍS MARTÍNEZ SISTACH
'We have to be on the same side of all people of good will - the laity and Christians have to be - and respond to the great challenges in this world: to violence, to poverty, to marginalization.'
POPE FRANCIS
'The big cities are getting bigger, but with the growth the strands of poverty and misery are getting bigger and bigger.'
Before the mayors of the main cities in the world the pope expressed his concern for the poverty, corruption and the trafficking of people that suffer the most in the great urban nuclei.
CARD. LLUÍS MARTÍNEZ SISTACH
'What the pope is saying is that the Church has to be welcoming, it has to open its doors and it has to accommodate. It also has to accompany and be a field hospital for the people.'
The location of this second congress will be Rio de Janeiro, the city where the then-new Pope Francis literally embraced the poverty of the big cities with his visit to the slums in Rio during WYD 2013.
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