The “demographic crisis”, the “struggles” of families and young people, social isolation among the elderly, the “silent cry” of the poor, environmental pollution, and “social conflicts” are among the biggest problems faced by towns and cities across Italy, Pope Leo said on Monday, December 29..

The Pope was speaking during a meeting with mayors from the Assocazione Nazionale dei Comuni Italiani (‘National Association of Italian Local Authorities’) in the Vatican on the 29th December.

Tackling these problems, the Pope said, requires first of all listening to the voices of the weak and the poor. Otherwise, he stressed, “democracy atrophies, becomes just a name, a formality.”

 ‘Major’ increase in gambling

Pope Leo then said he wanted to “draw attention in particular to the scourge of gambling,” which has “ruined many families.”

“Statistics show a major increase in Italy in recent years,” the Pope stressed, highlighting a recent Caritas report which described gambling as a “serious problem” for education, mental health, and societal trust in the country.

Describing the issue as a form of “loneliness,” Pope Leo called on public authorities to combat it by promoting “authentically human relationships between citizens.”

Citing Don Primo Mazzolari, a 20th-century Italian Catholic priest and social activist, the Pope stressed that Italy “does not only need sewers, houses, roads, aqueducts, and pavements,” but also “a way of feeling, of living, a way of looking at one another, and a way of coming together as brothers and sisters.”

Christmas and ‘authentic power’

In his address, Pope Leo also reflected on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated the day prior, on which the Church remembers the young children massacred by King Herod in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus.

This massacre, the Pope said, is a manifestation of an “inhuman power,” one which “does not know the beauty of love because it ignores the dignity of human life.”

Jesus’ birth, on the other hand, “reveals the most authentic aspect of all power, which is above all responsibility and service.”