· Vatican City ·

The Holy Father’s prayer intention for the month of August

For small and medium-sized businesses

05 August 2022

“Let us pray for small and medium-sized businesses, hard hit by the economic and social crisis, so they may find ways to continue operating, and serving their communities”. It’s the Pope’s prayer intention for the month of August, which he shared in a video published by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

“As a consequence of the pandemic and the wars”, the Pope says, “the world is facing a grave socio-economic crisis”, which is most affecting “small and medium-sized businesses”, including stores, workshops, cleaning businesses, transportation businesses, and so many others”.

He prays for businesses “that don’t appear on the world’s richest and most powerful lists”, which fulfil their social responsibility of creating jobs despite the challenges. He also mentions businesses “that invest in the common good instead of hiding their money in tax havens”, noting that “they all dedicate an immense creative capacity to changing things from the bottom up, from where the best creativity always comes”.

“With courage, with effort, with sacrifice”, he continues, “they invest in life, creating wellbeing, opportunities, and work”.

Echoing the Pope, Frédéric Fornos, SJ, International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, says the ongoing global crises are “a ‘Noah moment’, an opportunity to build something different”. He also highlights the crucial role small and medium-sized businesses have played in getting the world through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Available online at www.thepopevideo.org and translated into 23 languages, the video for the prayer intention for August was created and produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, in cooperation with La Machi Agency and the Dicastery for Communication.