Pope Francis says money, power or drugs offer no answer

Pope Francis

Pope Francis says there is no answer to be found in the affirmation of one’s power, drugs or momentary desires.

The Pope said this in his message to Bishop Francesco Lambiasi, of Rimini, on the occasion of the 36th Annual Meeting of “Friendship Among Peoples’’.

“Only the initiative of God the Creator can fill the measure of the heart, and He has come to encounter us, to allow himself be found by us as a friend.

“God has offered to those who are craving for Him the response that everyone awaits, even without realising it, as they look for it in success, money, power, drugs of any type, and in the attainment of one’s momentary desires.’’

In the message sent through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, the Pope said “only God’s initiative can fill one’s heart, for us all to rest in a stormy sea, as we are certain of His presence.

“Although a person’s life might have been a disaster, if it is destroyed by vice, drugs or any other such thing, God is still in one’s life.

“Although the life of an individual is a terrain full of weeds and thorns, there is always room for the good seed to grow, and we must trust God.’’

Francis expressed the hope that the meeting’s organisers and volunteers would “go to meet all, sustained by the desire to propose with strength, beauty and simplicity the Good News of the love of God’’.

The week-long event under the sponsorship of the Communion and Liberation movement, is taking its theme from a verse of the poet Mario Luzi.