At noon today, in Saint Peter's Square, the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with executives and employees from the Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS - Italia).
Dear brothers and sisters,
With great warmth, I welcome you all, executives and employees of the National Institute of Social Security, gathered here for this audience, the first time that you have done so in the secular history of your institution. Thank you very much! Thank you for your presence - there are really a lot of you! - and thank you to your President for his courteous words.
At various levels, you honour the delicate task of protecting certain rights related to the exercise of work; rights based on the very nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity. In a very special way, you have entrusted to your care what I would call te right to rest. I am referring not only to the rest that is supported and legitimized by a wide range of social benefits (including weekly and paid days off, to which every worker has the right - cf John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem exercens, 19), but also and above all to a dimension of human existence that is sufficiently rooted in spirituality, a dimension for which you also, on your part, are responsible.
God calls us to rest (cf Ex 34:21; Dt 5:12, 15) and He himself also wished to rest on the seventh day (cf Ex 31:17; Gn 2:2). In the language of faith, rest is therefore both a human and a divine dimension, though with a unique prerogative: that of not being a simple abstention from the effort of ordinary commitment, but an occasion for fully being committed to our creatureliness, elevated to the dignity of being a child of God himself. The need to sanctify rest (cf Ex 20:8) is therefore tied to this - renewed every week on Sunday - a time that permits us to protect family life and culture as well as social and religious aspects of life (cf Gaudium et spes, 67).
You are also, in a sense, employees of the rightly-deserved rest reserved for every one of God's children. In the multiplicity of the services you provide to society, both in terms of welfare and social security, you contribute to laying the foundations so that rest can be seen as an authentic human dimension, and for this reason, open to the possibility of a life-giving encounter with God and with others.
This work, which is truly an honour, also becomes a burden. In fact, you are called to deal with increasingly more complex situations which come both from today's society - with its criticisms about both balances and fragilities in our relationships - and from the world of work, plagued by the insufficiency of work and the precarious nature of the guarantees it can offer. If people have to live like that, how can they ever rest? Rest is the right that everyone should have when we have to work; but if there is a high level of unemployment, or social injustice, or if people are forced to work under the table, or if employment is precarious, how can I rest? What can we say? We can say - shame on you! - Ah, you want to work? - Yes - Wonderful. Let's create a contract: you start to work in September, and continue until July, then for July, August and September, you can't eat, you can't rest ... This kind of thing happens today! It happens today all over the world, even here: it's happening here in Rome too! Rest, because there is work. On the contrary, we cannot rest.
Until just recently, it was more or less a common practice to associate retirement with the reaching of the third age, in which we could enjoy a well-earned rest and offer wisdom and counsel to newer generations. The contemporary age has significantly changed this ritual. On one level, the possibility of the rest that was anticipated is sometimes diluted over time, sometimes renegotiated under aberrant conditions, even to the point of distorting the mere idea of an end to the need to work. On another level, essential needs should never be forgotten, even for those who have lost or who have never had employment, or for those who are forced to interrupt employment for various reasons. Sometimes, work stops and health care stops too ...
Your difficult task is to contribute so that there will never be a lack of indispensable grants in order to provide sustenance for unemployed workers and their families. Among your priorities, there must always be a priority placed on privileged attention paid to female workers, including assistance for mothers who must always protect the life that is born and which they serve every day. Protect women, the work of women! Never forget the elderly, the sick and those who suffer from work-related injuries. Never forget the right to retire, and I want to emphasize - everyone has a right to a pension - because it is important. Be aware of the supreme dignity of each worker, for whose sake you offer your work. Supporting income during and after the period of work, you contribute to the quality of their commitment as an investment for life on a human scale.
To work and to rest allows us to prolong the work of God throughout history, contributing in a personal, useful and creative way (cf GS, 34). Supporting employment, you support this work, and you also ensure sustained dignity for all those who have to leave their work. In so doing, you affirm the most profound reality: work, in fact, cannot be a mere cog in the perverse mechanism that grinds on resources in order to create more and more profit; therefore, work cannot be prolonged or reduced as a function of gains to be had by only a few or productive forms that sacrifice values, relationships or principles. This applies to the economy in general, that can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded (Evangelii gaudium, 204). Also applicable to all social institutions is the principle that the subject and the purpose is and must be the human person (cf Gaudium et spes, 25). Human dignity can never be compromised, even when a person is no longer economically productive.
Some of you may be thinking: How strange this Pope is - first he spoke about rest, and then he tells us all these things about the right to work! These things go together! True rest comes from work! You can only truly rest when you are sure that you have guaranteed work, that gives you dignity, for you and for your family. And you can only truly rest in your old age when you are sure that you will have a right to a pension. They go together, both of these: true rest and work.
Don't forget the human being: this is imperative. Love and serve mankind with conscience, responsibility, availability. Work for those who work, and not only for those who might want to work but who cannot. Do it not as a work of solidarity, but as a right born of justice and sustainability. Support the weak and the fragile, because no one should be denied the dignity and the freedom of an authentic human life.
Thank you for coming. I invoke upon each of you and upon your families, the blessing of the Lord ... I assure you of a remembrance in my prayer and I ask you please to pray for me.
Speech of His Holiness, Pope Francis
addressed to executives and employees
from INPS - Italia
Dear brothers and sisters,
With great warmth, I welcome you all, executives and employees of the National Institute of Social Security, gathered here for this audience, the first time that you have done so in the secular history of your institution. Thank you very much! Thank you for your presence - there are really a lot of you! - and thank you to your President for his courteous words.
At various levels, you honour the delicate task of protecting certain rights related to the exercise of work; rights based on the very nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity. In a very special way, you have entrusted to your care what I would call te right to rest. I am referring not only to the rest that is supported and legitimized by a wide range of social benefits (including weekly and paid days off, to which every worker has the right - cf John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem exercens, 19), but also and above all to a dimension of human existence that is sufficiently rooted in spirituality, a dimension for which you also, on your part, are responsible.
God calls us to rest (cf Ex 34:21; Dt 5:12, 15) and He himself also wished to rest on the seventh day (cf Ex 31:17; Gn 2:2). In the language of faith, rest is therefore both a human and a divine dimension, though with a unique prerogative: that of not being a simple abstention from the effort of ordinary commitment, but an occasion for fully being committed to our creatureliness, elevated to the dignity of being a child of God himself. The need to sanctify rest (cf Ex 20:8) is therefore tied to this - renewed every week on Sunday - a time that permits us to protect family life and culture as well as social and religious aspects of life (cf Gaudium et spes, 67).
You are also, in a sense, employees of the rightly-deserved rest reserved for every one of God's children. In the multiplicity of the services you provide to society, both in terms of welfare and social security, you contribute to laying the foundations so that rest can be seen as an authentic human dimension, and for this reason, open to the possibility of a life-giving encounter with God and with others.
This work, which is truly an honour, also becomes a burden. In fact, you are called to deal with increasingly more complex situations which come both from today's society - with its criticisms about both balances and fragilities in our relationships - and from the world of work, plagued by the insufficiency of work and the precarious nature of the guarantees it can offer. If people have to live like that, how can they ever rest? Rest is the right that everyone should have when we have to work; but if there is a high level of unemployment, or social injustice, or if people are forced to work under the table, or if employment is precarious, how can I rest? What can we say? We can say - shame on you! - Ah, you want to work? - Yes - Wonderful. Let's create a contract: you start to work in September, and continue until July, then for July, August and September, you can't eat, you can't rest ... This kind of thing happens today! It happens today all over the world, even here: it's happening here in Rome too! Rest, because there is work. On the contrary, we cannot rest.
Until just recently, it was more or less a common practice to associate retirement with the reaching of the third age, in which we could enjoy a well-earned rest and offer wisdom and counsel to newer generations. The contemporary age has significantly changed this ritual. On one level, the possibility of the rest that was anticipated is sometimes diluted over time, sometimes renegotiated under aberrant conditions, even to the point of distorting the mere idea of an end to the need to work. On another level, essential needs should never be forgotten, even for those who have lost or who have never had employment, or for those who are forced to interrupt employment for various reasons. Sometimes, work stops and health care stops too ...
Your difficult task is to contribute so that there will never be a lack of indispensable grants in order to provide sustenance for unemployed workers and their families. Among your priorities, there must always be a priority placed on privileged attention paid to female workers, including assistance for mothers who must always protect the life that is born and which they serve every day. Protect women, the work of women! Never forget the elderly, the sick and those who suffer from work-related injuries. Never forget the right to retire, and I want to emphasize - everyone has a right to a pension - because it is important. Be aware of the supreme dignity of each worker, for whose sake you offer your work. Supporting income during and after the period of work, you contribute to the quality of their commitment as an investment for life on a human scale.
To work and to rest allows us to prolong the work of God throughout history, contributing in a personal, useful and creative way (cf GS, 34). Supporting employment, you support this work, and you also ensure sustained dignity for all those who have to leave their work. In so doing, you affirm the most profound reality: work, in fact, cannot be a mere cog in the perverse mechanism that grinds on resources in order to create more and more profit; therefore, work cannot be prolonged or reduced as a function of gains to be had by only a few or productive forms that sacrifice values, relationships or principles. This applies to the economy in general, that can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded (Evangelii gaudium, 204). Also applicable to all social institutions is the principle that the subject and the purpose is and must be the human person (cf Gaudium et spes, 25). Human dignity can never be compromised, even when a person is no longer economically productive.
Some of you may be thinking: How strange this Pope is - first he spoke about rest, and then he tells us all these things about the right to work! These things go together! True rest comes from work! You can only truly rest when you are sure that you have guaranteed work, that gives you dignity, for you and for your family. And you can only truly rest in your old age when you are sure that you will have a right to a pension. They go together, both of these: true rest and work.
Don't forget the human being: this is imperative. Love and serve mankind with conscience, responsibility, availability. Work for those who work, and not only for those who might want to work but who cannot. Do it not as a work of solidarity, but as a right born of justice and sustainability. Support the weak and the fragile, because no one should be denied the dignity and the freedom of an authentic human life.
Thank you for coming. I invoke upon each of you and upon your families, the blessing of the Lord ... I assure you of a remembrance in my prayer and I ask you please to pray for me.
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