AP News: Pope Francis has lamented the abandoning of the traditionally Christian practice of not working on Sundays, saying it has a negative impact on families and friendships.
Francis on Saturday traveled to Molise, an agricultural region in the heart of southern Italy where unemployment is chronically high. While he said poor people need jobs to have dignity, he indicated that opening stores and other businesses on Sundays as a way to create jobs wasn’t beneficial for society.
Francis said the priority should be “not economic but human,” and that the stress should be on families and friendships, not commercial relationships. He added: “Maybe it’s time to ask ourselves if working on Sundays is true freedom.”
He said that spending Sundays with family and friends is an “ethical choice” for faithful and non-faithful alike.
Francis, 77, appeared to have bounced back from a spate of illnesses which have caused him to cancel several appointments recently. He flew by helicopter to Molise for a full day of activity, including a lunch appointment with poor people and a visit to a prison.
The pontiff moved energetically and smiled often as he greeted the crowds. The Vatican had described the health problems as “mild” but did not elaborate.
At one point, the pope, speaking off the cuff, encouraged parents to spend more time with children. He quipped: “Waste time with your children!” He said he liked to ask parents, “do you play with your children?”
Francis is returning to Vatican City later Saturday.
Prophetic Link:
“But the question of Sabbath and Sunday observance is to be agitated everywhere, and the deceptions of Satan will flood the world. The man of sin has instituted a spurious sabbath, and the Protestant world has taken this child of the papacy and cradled and nurtured it. Satan means to make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of the fornication of Babylon. Men are binding themselves together in bonds of union to show their disloyalty to the God of heaven. The first day of the week is to be exalted and presented to all for observance. Shall we be partakers of this cup of abomination? Shall we bow to the authorities of earth and despise God?” Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, April 15, 1890.