… I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone — if possible… We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness — not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
So begins the trailer of a powerful new offering by Grassroots Films called Outcasts. Excerpting a long soundbite from Charlie Chaplin’s classic speech from The Great Dictator, and juxtaposing these words against haunting modern images, we’re shown snippets of people’s lives in five countries where the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal work and live. The film promises to prick our consciences and to consider the radical message of the Gospel, which is rooted in God’s profound love for every person, and the call to kindness — to find humanity in everyone, especially the desperate and forgotten.
And today we celebrate...