Sawt Falasteen - Pope urges leaders not to leave poor behind

The US pope has made social justice a key theme of his papacy, now in its sixth month since being made head of the world's Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.

The Church, Leo said during a mass at St Peter's Basilica, is "still wounded by old and new forms of poverty", but "hopes to be 'mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice'".

Sunday marked a special Jubilee of the Poor, one of many such celebrations during the holy year, which has drawn pilgrims from around the world. It fell on the World Day of the Poor, an annual observance begun by Francis in 2017.

Following mass, Pope Leo ate lunch inside the Vatican's vast Paul VI Hall with a group of over 1,300 homeless and disadvantaged people, disabled people and refugees, blessing the meal of lasagne and cutlets as other community events to help the poor took place around Rome.

- 'Listen to the poorest' -

"I urge Heads of State and the leaders of nations to listen to the cry of the poorest," said Leo during his address inside St Peter's.

"There can be no peace without justice, and the poor remind us of this in many ways, through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate," he added.

Beyond poverty itself, he cited "many moral and spiritual situations of poverty", resulting in loneliness.

He urged believers to "be attentive to others... reaching out to the marginalised and becoming witnesses of God's tenderness."

Following his Angelus prayer to the crowds in St Peter's Square, the pope denounced persecution and attacks against Christians around the world, including Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique and Sudan, and cited fresh violence in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"I accompany the families in prayer in Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where in recent days there has been a massacre of civilians, at least 20 victims of a terrorist attack," he added.

The group, founded by former Ugandan rebels who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group in 2019, attacked a village around 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Goma overnight Friday into Saturday.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST