Pope’s February prayer intention focuses on corruption

In the February Pope Video, Francis speaks about the consequences of corruption and calls for the condemnation of this evil.

This month, the video was made in conjunction with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a first for the dicastery and a sign of the importance that the pope gives to this theme.

The Pope Video is released  each month from the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, offering an audiovisual presentation of the Holy Father’s monthly intentions.

“Let us pray that those who have material, political or spiritual power may resist any lure of corruption,” Francis invites in this month’s video. “We must speak about it, denounce its evils, and try to understand it so as to show our resolve to make mercy reign over meanness, beauty over nothingness.”

Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, affirmed that “we shouldn’t speak about resolving the issue of corruption in theory. Instead we should confront corruption in every sector. It is the poor who pay for the parties of the corrupt.”

Jesuit Father Frédéric Fornos, international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, noted that it’s not surprising the Pope included this theme among the prayer intentions of this year. “This is something that concerns him deeply,” he said, “and which he has spoken about on many occasions. Corruption affects many nations of the world and it is an evil that destroys and kills.”

The Pope Video on corruption is in line with various initiatives from the Dicastery to draw attention to this scourge, beginning with an International Conference on Corruption held June 15, 2017; the publication of Cardinal Turkson’s book (with Vittorio V Alberti) Corrosion, for which Pope Francis wrote the prologue; and a conference on corruption in Naples scheduled for February 3, where the video will be shown.