Social security must be fair and sustainable for future generations : Pope

Pope Francis has urged Italian policymakers to make social security economically and socially sustainable, keeping in mind the common good of present and future generations.

He did so when addressing 400 executives and employees of the Italian National Institute of Social Security (INPS) in the Vatican on Monday.

“We need wise politicians, guided by the criterion of fraternity”, who avoid “wasting resources when available and leaving future generations in serious difficulty”, he said.

Pope Francis noted that social security is an increasingly “topical issue” today, as the economic and social aspects of demographic ageing become more significant, while society seems to have “lost its horizon”, with no concern for the future.

While thanking the INPS employees for their work supporting workers and providing  assistance to the unemployed, the sick, the injured and elderly, Pope Francis concluded  by encouraging policymakers to foster “the culture of the common good, of social security and sustainability which,” he said “in order to be economic must also be social.”