Pope advises global activists in the struggle against poverty

Says to act with 'courage' but 'without violence'.

Vatican City:  Pope Francis urged an international gathering of more than 150 grassroots social activists to struggle against the "structural causes" of poverty and inequality, with a "revolutionary" program drawn from the Gospels.

"The poor no longer wait, they seek to be protagonists, they organize, study, work, demand and, above all, practice that special solidarity that exists among those who suffer, among the poor," the pope said Tuesday, to a Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Popular Movements.

The pope said solidarity entails struggling "against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and shelter, the denial of social and labor rights," and confronting what he called the "empire of money”.

Pope Francis said Catholic social teaching defines "land, shelter and work" as "sacred rights," yet "if I speak of this some people conclude that the pope is a communist”.

The pope acknowledged that the activists sought to replace the current economic and political system with one based on "human dignity," but warned them to avoid destructive extremism in the process.

"It must be done with courage, but also with intelligence; with tenacity, but without fanaticism; with passion, but without violence," he said.

Source: Catholic News Service