Long time border farm worker organizer and advocate meets Pope Francis

Long time border farm worker organizer and advocate Carlos Marentes met Pope Francis in late October as part of the three-day World Meeting of Popular Movements conference in Rome.

The group, made up of social justice leaders from around the world, decided to have their meeting in Rome because the attention Pope Francis gives to the struggles of the poor.

The purpose of the conference was to discuss problems facing the unemployed, poor and those who’ve lost their land, according to a Vatican Radio report.

“This meeting of Popular Movements is a sign, a great sign,” Pope Francis told his audience at the conference on Oct. 28. “You came to be in the presence of God, of the church… [to speak about] a reality that is often silenced. The poor not only suffer from injustice, but they also fight against it.”

The Holy Father also emphasized that it is not sufficient to be content with “illusory promises,” and that anesthetizing or taming problems at hand does not solve them, according to the Vatican Radio report. Pope Francis also called for solidarity amidst trying times.

“Solidarity is a word that…means more than some generous, sporadic acts. It is to think and act in terms of the community…It is also to fight against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, unemployment, and [loss of] land, housing, and social and labour rights. It is to confront the destructive effects of the ‘Empire of Money:’ forcible displacements and migrations, human and drug trafficking, war, violence, and all of these realities that many of you suffer and that we all are called to address and transform. Solidarity, understood in its most profound sense, is a way of making history, and that is what the Popular Movements movement is doing,” Francis said.

Read and listen to Vatican Radio’s full report on the conference at http://bit.ly/1prkO3C

Marentes has spent more than 40 years fighting for farmworkers’ rights.

The Catholic Diocese of El Paso presented Marentes and his wife with this year’s Option for the Poor award during the Option for the Poor dinner at Santa Lucia Parish Hall Sept. 27.

“Marentes has also been dedicated to the promotion of awareness of food sovereignity and is world connected in that cause to central and South America, Africa, and Asia. He also collaborates with others in community gardens in El Paso and teaching communities about food rights. The dignity of the human person; the care for creation, the call to family, community, and participation, rights and responsibilities, dignity of work and rights of workers, and the call to solidarity which are all part of Catholic social teaching have been embodied in the work of Marentes and the Centro de los Trabajadores Agricolas Fronterizos, the award presentation noted,” according to an early Oct. article in the Rio Grande Catholic.