General Intention for the Month of August

(July 31, 2010) The Unemployed and the Homeless. That those who are unemployed, homeless, or in any serious need may find welcome, understanding, and help in overcoming their difficulties.
Pope Benedict XVI is asking us to pray during this month for people in serious need, particularly the unemployed and the homeless. Certainly the Pope chose this prayer intention with the recent economic crisis in mind. The world economy is still fragile and the economic problem in one country affects other countries. The worsening scandal of hunger is unacceptable in a world which has the resources, the knowledge, and the means available to bring it to an end. It impels us to change our way of life, it reminds us of the urgent need to eliminate the structural causes of global economic dysfunction and to correct models of growth that seem incapable of guaranteeing respect for the environment and for integral human development. The unemployment rate all over the world is on the rise where the educated fail to find suitable employment. It is estimated that there are at least 100 million homeless people worldwide, more than one percent of them in US alone. The Holy Father invites us to respond to these people in serious need. He calls on us to pray for them and at the same time to welcome, understand, and help them, recognizing that he or she is important to God and therefore to us. Having seen the tragic situation of poor children and adults sleeping in the streets, under the bridges, St. Albert Hurtado, a Chilean Jesuit who died in 1952, began the Hogar de Cristo, a hostel to give them food and shelter, and went out into the streets to look for them. Today his work has grown, even beyond the frontiers of his own country, and takes in thousands and thousands of children, young people, adults, sick people, old people, drug-addicts and the homeless. This month the Holy Father is asking us to pray that the Church may be a 'home' for all people, ready to open her doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination, hunger or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries.