This is a home for the pastoral agents (dioceses, parishes, caritas members, priests, religious, laity etc) who seek to minister to the poor in a synodal way. It is a space where pastoral agents can learn from one another how to walk with the poor in a synodal way, discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit through the Listening Circles of Francesco.
Read moreAs a school for learning synodality in the ministry to the poor, we are open to all who are engaged in ministry among the poor. In a particular way, however, we seek to accompany those who feel called to minister among what Pope Francis describes as the lepers of our time.
Pope Francis had a profound devotion to Saint Francis of Assisi and was deeply inspired by the way he embraced the lepers and the outcasts of his society, seeing in them the crucified face of Christ.
Pope Francis invites the Church to make the same journey: to embrace the lepers of our own age as a way of receiving Christ Himself. In doing so, we are confronted with a profound question: If Saint Francis embraced the lepers of his time as a way of embracing Christ, then who are the lepers of our time?
For Pope Francis, the lepers of our time are those living with the Hansen disease. Pope Francis therefore joined the campaign for the eradication of the Hansen disease.
However, Pope Francis broadens our understanding of the lepers of our time. The lepers of our age also include those groups of poor people who are treated as outcasts because their economic condition disturbs us and make us feel uncomfortable.
These include the homeless, the street children, the poor living in shanty towns and slum settlements, the survivor of human trafficking, the economic migrants, the victims of war. These are the economic outcasts of our time or the economic lepers of our time.
Not everyone feels called to undertake ministry to such outcasts. Yet throughout Africa, and indeed in many parts of the world, there are Christians who quietly live a ministry of presence among these modern-day lepers. They walk with the forgotten, and bear witness to the compassion of Christ in places of suffering and exclusion.
Many of these pastoral agents carry out their ministry with limited access to opportunities for spiritual renewal, ongoing formation, pastoral resources, and networks of mutual support. Many have not been exposed to synodal way of doing ministry to the poor and the lepers of our time. Others experience fatigue, discouragement, and spiritual exhaustion as they carry the burdens of those they serve.
We have created this website for them.
It is a space of encouragement and renewal; a place for mutual learning and shared wisdom; a home where pastoral agents can deepen their understanding of synodality, reflect on their experiences, and discern together what the Holy Spirit is saying through the cries and hopes of those living at the margins.
Above all, it is a reminder that those who minister to the lepers of our time do not walk alone. The Church walks with them, prays for them, and seeks to strengthen them in their vocation to become signs of God’s mercy among the lepers of our time.
In the formation workshops we conduct with pastoral agents, we reflect on The Joy of the Gospel and the images of the Church that emerge from the spirituality of Saint Francis and his ministry to the lepers of his time. These reflections have revealed that those involved in ministry to the economic outcasts of our day embody a particular vision of the Church that Pope Francis describes through several powerful images.
The Church that goes out into the streets. The reality of the economic lepers of our time is such that, if we are to minister to them, we cannot remain within the comfort of our institutions. We must go out into the streets and encounter them where they live, struggle, and hope.
The Church that is bruised, hurting, and dirty. The suffering of those who are treated as outcasts is such that, when the Church draws near to them, it inevitably bears the marks of that encounter. In accompanying the wounded, the Church itself becomes bruised, hurting, and dirty.
The Church that experiences renewal and conversion. As the Church contemplates the face of Christ in the lepers of our time, it undergoes its own renewal. It is called to repentance, deeper compassion, and greater fidelity to the Gospel.
The Church as a sacrament of God’s mercy.When the Church walks alongside the lepers of our time, its mission becomes that of making God’s mercy visible. In the streets, God’s mercy takes many forms: it is repentance and the forgiveness of sins; it is healing and deliverance; it is provision and accompaniment; it is the restoration of hope and dignity. In the streets with the lepers of our time, we discover anew that the name of God is Mercy.
