Speaking at the weekly General Audience dedicated to Saint Joseph the Carpenter, the Supreme Pontiff focused his attention on the social importance of work from different angles, including unemployment, exploitation of child labor, illegal hiring and violation of labor rights.

“Work not only serves to obtain a just sustenance: it is also a place where we express ourselves, feel useful and learn the great lesson of concretion, which helps to prevent spiritual life from turning into spiritism,” the Pope stated.

“Unfortunately, however, work is often hostage to social injustice and, more than a means of humanization, it becomes an existential periphery,” Pope Francis said, noting that the possibility of earning a living is what gives people dignity.

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