Pope Francis slams culture of ‘perfect’ people shunning the disabled

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16. Extreme poverty is a reality, not a faceless statistic, pope says

ROME (CNS) -- The key to ending extreme poverty and hunger is to recognize that behind every statistic, there is the face of a person who is suffering, Pope Francis said.

"Poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a family; it has the face of people, young and old. It has the face of widespread unemployment and lack of opportunity. It has the face of forced migrations, and of empty or destroyed homes," the pope said June 13 during a visit to the Rome headquarters of the U.N.'s World Food Program.

Advanced communications, while informing the world of the tragedy of poverty, has also resulted in a desensitized culture that has turned the real suffering of people into statistics, the pope told WFP executive board members.

The world is gradually "growing immune to other people's tragedies, seeing them as something 'natural,'" he said. "Without faces and stories, human lives become statistics and we run the risk of bureaucratizing the sufferings of others."

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/extreme-poverty-is-a-reality-not-a-faceless-statistic-pope-says.cfm