Today, millions of Afghans around the world smiled with pride.
Nadiem Amiri, born to Afghan parents, has passed the ball that scored for Germany at the FIFA World Cup.
A reminder that Afghan talent knows no borders. Give Afghans opportunity, and they will shine on the world’s biggest stages. 🇦🇫🇩🇪⚽ #worldcup
The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney
@BBCWorld filmed a father in Ghor selling his five-year-old daughter and called it a humanitarian story, but it is not a humanitarian story; it's a political hit story.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, poverty in Eastern Europe rose from 1 million to 24 million within a decade. Romanian children were trafficked across Western Europe by the thousands. Bulgarian girls sold for 5,000 euros. Moldova became a source country for sex trafficking into Italy and Germany. Appalachia lost its industrial base, and child exploitation spread across all 50 U.S. states. So was it European culture or American culture? You tell me. War plus economic collapse plus mass abandonment produces this in every society on earth. And Afghanistan has been going through the same cycle for decades.
The West called Romania a transition crisis and sent economists. It called Appalachia a public health emergency and sent funding. It called Afghanistan a culture problem and sent cameras.
Aid fell from $3.8 billion to $767 million. A 80% cut while the population grew 6.5% in a single year. 2.5 million Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan into a country that could not feed the people already there. Today: 28 million in poverty. Three in four cannot meet basic needs. 3.7 million children need malnutrition treatment.
The father in Ghor did not sell his daughter because he is Afghan. He sold her because the world destroyed Afghanistan, froze the economy, handed the country to the Talibs, closed SIGAR, and then arrived with a camera to make a shit-show story about how it all went wrong and how it was a culture story.
Here is the truth: Afghanistan doesn't have a culture problem; it's the world that has an accountability problem.
https://t.co/r0KSRE6aOg
Peace begins in the human heart, passes through relationships, takes root in neighborhoods and peripheries, and expands until it embraces the entire city and the world. Peace is built by promoting a culture that rejects violence, through daily gestures, education, and practical acts of justice. #PastoralVisit #Naples
JD Vance is lecturing the Pope on Catholicism and Pierre Poilievre is lecturing Mark Carney on economics and RFK Jr is lecturing scientists about vaccines and Donald Trump is lecturing the world on tariffs and Pete Hegseth is quoting Pulp Fiction and thinking it’s the Bible
Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney#Cameroon https://t.co/bKteFZ3iWE
Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee. Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. #Peace
Let us continue to pray for peace in #Iran and throughout the #Middle East, especially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children. May our prayer offer comfort to those who suffer and a seed of hope for the future. #PrayTogether
Today marks #WomensDay. Let us renew our commitment to recognize the equal dignity of man and woman. Unfortunately, many women, from childhood onward, are still discriminated against and suffer various forms of violence. My solidarity and prayer go to them in a special way.