Today, can we say that women are promoters of hope when there are so many gaping wounds? A planet that cries out for the destruction of human beings, and human beings themselves, in particular women and children, that are subjected to slavery, contempt and discrimination and whose cry we want to silence.

These are Jesus’ current wounds: the migration of unaccompanied children and the forced division of families; refugees due to wars and conflicts that live in subhuman conditions; trafficking in persons for prostitution, dishonest work, organ trafficking and commercial surrogacy; victims of the arms and drugs trade; wounded, abused women, discriminated by macho cultures and also by hedonistic cultures that seek in abortion and in the reduction of the poorest peoples the solution to the lack of an adequate distribution of wealth; families without home, without land, without education, without food and without work, when science and technology, applied to an integral ecology, would allow us to live fraternally and take care of our Common Home.

Women make up 71% of the 40 million people who suffer today from modern forms of slavery. At the same time, we are called to be women who promote hope. This is what our society and our Church need from us: women capable of spreading mercy from our inner selves, that seek to give life and never cancel or diminish it, that reach out to those who suffer the most and accompany those most in need, acting by a maternal love capable of silent sacrifice and extreme creativity, and women that evangelise with tender language and gestures... that’s how we may heal the open wounds of our Lord.

We are women who do not need to claim anything but act out of conviction. We must be sure that we can transform the world around us and for which we are responsible. We must be aware that the society
we seek is built, day by day, little by little, through a collaborative work of men and women, equal in dignity and different in identity. We, women of 2019, can heal, in some way, the gaping wounds of the Crucified, being carriers of hope,
• if we contribute and transmit the creative love on a daily basis,
• if we face with strength the temptation to drop our arms, and we commit ourselves to personal and community action,
• if we share ideals and work with men who are also passionate about caring for the world as well as their own home, which, at the same time, means lasting and community protection for the most vulnerable.

As Pope Francis urges us, let us put into practice with joy, actions and renunciations in our environment, which, however small they may be, look to solve the tragedies that we suffer today.

Women, let’s go ahead! Let’s be promoters of hope!