Will We Choose Dignity, or Subjugation?
Over the past several days, mass ferment has broken out among the hundreds of thousands in Europe. In Italy, farmers, fishermen, and truck drivers have launched a national protest over the deadly economic conditions they experience daily. In France, students from middle schools and high schools throughout the country are protesting dire conditions plaguing the school system.
In Spain, an 87-year old, wheelchair-bound woman, Maricarmen Abascal, was forcefully evicted from her apartment in a stretcher due to her inability to pay a 230% rent hike demanded by an investment fund which bought her building. She appealed from her hospital bed: “Please fight!” She said, “I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so the others can learn to fight for what is theirs!“ People in Spain responded by showing up in the hundreds of thousands across 50 cities, ultimately succeeding in returning Abascal to her apartment. Unfortunately, it was announced yesterday that Abascal had passed away in a hospital she was staying in, likely due to the stress from her eviction.
When questioned about the case upon his return from France, Pope Leo XIV asked, “How is it possible for something like this to happen? What is wrong with a system that allows an elderly woman, who is also disabled or facing some difficulty, to be evicted from her home?”
People across France, Spain, and Italy have heard the Pope’s message. Pope Leo XIV has been a major presence in these countries, gathering hundreds of thousands of people, whether Catholic, Christian, or nonbelievers. Among the morally bankrupt leaders of the trans-Atlantic, Pope Leo XIV stands out as a voice of reason, among an abyss of diplomacy.
On Oct. 27th, 40 years after Pope John Paul II invited representatives of all faiths to Assisi, Italy, for the World Day Prayer of Peace, Pope Leo XIV will travel to Assisi to lead the signing of an appeal for peace alongside 80 representatives of different faiths from across the world. This is very much in line with the intervention by the Schiller Institute, International Peace Coalition, Pax Christi, and other leaders for the Pope to intervene to prevent an escalation into thermonuclear war, and to call on the world’s great powers—Russia, China, and the United States—to come together for a tripartite dialogue similar to the bipartisan discussions between the U.S. and the USSR which stopped the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Intervening on behalf of humanity, while presenting higher solutions, can avoid tragedy at this perilous moment in human history. The weekly forums of the International Peace Coalition, the activities of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Organization are all vehicles which should be joined by you, your friends and families.
Today’s Fireside Chat will be hosted by Dennis Speed, who will discuss the developments in Spain and the Pope’s latest actions. Bill Jones will follow him, going through the history of the previous papacies’ interventions for peace.