At noon today in Rome (6:00am EST), in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the Italian Red Cross.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you and I thank your President for his courteous words. They also allowed me to remember the birth of your Movement, the inspiration that sustains you and the goals you set for yourselves. The Red Cross fulfills an essential service all across Italy and throughout the entire world, precious both for the work that you tirelessly fulfill and for the spirit in which you carry out this commitment, contributing to the spreading of a new, more open and more supportive mentality.
Therefore, your actions deserve even more gratitude from every citizen because they are carried out in the most diverse situations. You have to cope with fatigue and dangers of various kinds. This pertains to the case of assistance provided for victims of earthquakes and other natural disasters, which alleviate the sufferings of affected populations, representing a sign of your closeness to all Italian people. Of equal value is the commitment that you place on rescuing migrants during their arduous journeys on the sea, and in receiving those who disembark and hope to be welcomed and integrated. The hand that you stretch out to them and which they grasp is a marvellous sign which should be translated as: I will not only help you in this situation, to lift you up out of the sea and bring you to safety, but I assure you that I will be there and I will take your interests to heart. For this reason, your presence beside these immigrants represents a prophetic sign, which is extremely necessary in our times. I used the word prophetic sign: the prophet - to use a language that everyone will understand - the prophet is the one who slaps us with his way of life, with the service that he offers and the words he employs ... to slap: to wake up, truly delivers a slap to our social egotism, to the egotism of society. And it awakens the best intentions within our hearts! But give your slap with your words and with your witness, not with your hand!
The mission of the volunteer, called to stoop over anyone who he finds to be in need, and ready to lend him a helping hand in a loving and disinterested manner, recalls the gospel figure of the good Samaritan (cf Lk 10:25-37). This is one of Jesus' parables whose inexhaustible wealth offers us a precious source of light to illuminate your actions and the values enshrined in your Statutes.
The first of the fundamental principles that your Statutes affirm is humanity; which leads to preventing and alleviating human suffering everywhere (Article 1.3). The humanity, in virtue of which you care for the sufferings of many people, is the same humanity that compels the good Samaritan to stoop over the wounded man lying on the ground. He experiences compassion and makes himself a neighbour: without compassion, he would keep himself at a distance, and the man who had come upon the brigands would remain for him a faceless subject.
In our world, how many children, elderly, women and men there are whose faces have never been recognized as unique and unrepeatable, and they remain invisible because they remain hidden in the shadows of indifference! Indifference prevents us from seeing the other, from hearing his or her call and from perceiving his or her suffering. The culture of waste - which is even more evident today - is an anonymous culture, without any ties and without a face. It cares for only some, excluding many others. To affirm the principle of humanity therefore means becoming promotors of a mentality rooted in the value of every human being, and of a practice that does not put economic interests at the centre of social life, but rather the care of people. Don't put money at the centre of your life, no, people!
The second principle affirmed by your Statutes is impartiality, which leads to not basing ones own actions on any distinction of nationality, race, religious belief, class or political opinion. The consequence is neutrality - the third principle - by which the Movement does not take sides with any of the parties in political, racial or religious conflicts and controversies. This criterion for action unfortunately contrasts the trend that is so widespread today of distinguishing between those who deserve attention or relief and those who are not worthy. But you have a policy: this is your policy. And which is your political party? Your President said: you are from the political party of those who are most in need, those who are in need.
The Samaritan in the gospel acts with impartiality: he does not interrogate the man lying on the ground before helping him, as if to know what his origins and his faith conviction is, or in order to understand if he has been wrongly or rightly wounded. No. The good Samaritan does not subject the wounded man to any prior examination, he does not judge him and does not base his help on moral prerogatives, let alone religious directives. He simply soothes his wounds and then entrusts him to an innkeeper, taking care of his material needs first of all, care that cannot be postponed. The Samaritan acts, pays in person - as I like to say, the evil enters through the pockets, so also virtue comes out of the pockets - the beloved Samaritan pays in order to help the other person. Behind his figure stands the figure of Jesus himself, who stooped over all of humanity and over every one of those who desired to be called brothers, without making any distinction, but offering his salvation to every human being.
The Italian Red Cross shares the principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality with the International Movement of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent which, uniting as many as 190 national movements, constitutes an international network that is necessary to coordinate and globalize relief efforts, in order to ensure the promotion of mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace among peoples (cf Statutes, 1.3). These words are always the meaning of your mission: the construction of a reciprocal understanding between individuals and peoples, and the birth of a lasting peace, that can only be based on a style of cooperation that is encouraged in every human and social environment, and based on feelings of friendship. In fact, those who look at others through the lens of friendship, and not through the lens of competition or conflict, become the builders of a more liveable and human world.
I do not want to conclude without expressing a thought for those of you who, in the exercise of your mission of helping, have lost their lives. Excuse me: not lost, no not lost: given! These are your martyrs, they are your martyrs. And Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to give your life for another person; you have this reality, this example among your members. May they inspire us, inspire you, help you and protect you from heaven.
And we ask that the Spirit of the Risen Lord, who is the Spirit of love and of peace, may teach us this path and help us to willingly walk it. I ask this blessing for each of you as a gift from God - God the Father of all of us, Father of all confessions - and I ask this blessing especially for those who have lost their lives while exercising their service and for their loved ones. I also ask you to pray for me. Thank you.
Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the meeting with members of the
Italian Red Cross
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you and I thank your President for his courteous words. They also allowed me to remember the birth of your Movement, the inspiration that sustains you and the goals you set for yourselves. The Red Cross fulfills an essential service all across Italy and throughout the entire world, precious both for the work that you tirelessly fulfill and for the spirit in which you carry out this commitment, contributing to the spreading of a new, more open and more supportive mentality.
Therefore, your actions deserve even more gratitude from every citizen because they are carried out in the most diverse situations. You have to cope with fatigue and dangers of various kinds. This pertains to the case of assistance provided for victims of earthquakes and other natural disasters, which alleviate the sufferings of affected populations, representing a sign of your closeness to all Italian people. Of equal value is the commitment that you place on rescuing migrants during their arduous journeys on the sea, and in receiving those who disembark and hope to be welcomed and integrated. The hand that you stretch out to them and which they grasp is a marvellous sign which should be translated as: I will not only help you in this situation, to lift you up out of the sea and bring you to safety, but I assure you that I will be there and I will take your interests to heart. For this reason, your presence beside these immigrants represents a prophetic sign, which is extremely necessary in our times. I used the word prophetic sign: the prophet - to use a language that everyone will understand - the prophet is the one who slaps us with his way of life, with the service that he offers and the words he employs ... to slap: to wake up, truly delivers a slap to our social egotism, to the egotism of society. And it awakens the best intentions within our hearts! But give your slap with your words and with your witness, not with your hand!
The mission of the volunteer, called to stoop over anyone who he finds to be in need, and ready to lend him a helping hand in a loving and disinterested manner, recalls the gospel figure of the good Samaritan (cf Lk 10:25-37). This is one of Jesus' parables whose inexhaustible wealth offers us a precious source of light to illuminate your actions and the values enshrined in your Statutes.
The first of the fundamental principles that your Statutes affirm is humanity; which leads to preventing and alleviating human suffering everywhere (Article 1.3). The humanity, in virtue of which you care for the sufferings of many people, is the same humanity that compels the good Samaritan to stoop over the wounded man lying on the ground. He experiences compassion and makes himself a neighbour: without compassion, he would keep himself at a distance, and the man who had come upon the brigands would remain for him a faceless subject.
In our world, how many children, elderly, women and men there are whose faces have never been recognized as unique and unrepeatable, and they remain invisible because they remain hidden in the shadows of indifference! Indifference prevents us from seeing the other, from hearing his or her call and from perceiving his or her suffering. The culture of waste - which is even more evident today - is an anonymous culture, without any ties and without a face. It cares for only some, excluding many others. To affirm the principle of humanity therefore means becoming promotors of a mentality rooted in the value of every human being, and of a practice that does not put economic interests at the centre of social life, but rather the care of people. Don't put money at the centre of your life, no, people!
The second principle affirmed by your Statutes is impartiality, which leads to not basing ones own actions on any distinction of nationality, race, religious belief, class or political opinion. The consequence is neutrality - the third principle - by which the Movement does not take sides with any of the parties in political, racial or religious conflicts and controversies. This criterion for action unfortunately contrasts the trend that is so widespread today of distinguishing between those who deserve attention or relief and those who are not worthy. But you have a policy: this is your policy. And which is your political party? Your President said: you are from the political party of those who are most in need, those who are in need.
The Samaritan in the gospel acts with impartiality: he does not interrogate the man lying on the ground before helping him, as if to know what his origins and his faith conviction is, or in order to understand if he has been wrongly or rightly wounded. No. The good Samaritan does not subject the wounded man to any prior examination, he does not judge him and does not base his help on moral prerogatives, let alone religious directives. He simply soothes his wounds and then entrusts him to an innkeeper, taking care of his material needs first of all, care that cannot be postponed. The Samaritan acts, pays in person - as I like to say, the evil enters through the pockets, so also virtue comes out of the pockets - the beloved Samaritan pays in order to help the other person. Behind his figure stands the figure of Jesus himself, who stooped over all of humanity and over every one of those who desired to be called brothers, without making any distinction, but offering his salvation to every human being.
The Italian Red Cross shares the principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality with the International Movement of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent which, uniting as many as 190 national movements, constitutes an international network that is necessary to coordinate and globalize relief efforts, in order to ensure the promotion of mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace among peoples (cf Statutes, 1.3). These words are always the meaning of your mission: the construction of a reciprocal understanding between individuals and peoples, and the birth of a lasting peace, that can only be based on a style of cooperation that is encouraged in every human and social environment, and based on feelings of friendship. In fact, those who look at others through the lens of friendship, and not through the lens of competition or conflict, become the builders of a more liveable and human world.
I do not want to conclude without expressing a thought for those of you who, in the exercise of your mission of helping, have lost their lives. Excuse me: not lost, no not lost: given! These are your martyrs, they are your martyrs. And Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to give your life for another person; you have this reality, this example among your members. May they inspire us, inspire you, help you and protect you from heaven.
And we ask that the Spirit of the Risen Lord, who is the Spirit of love and of peace, may teach us this path and help us to willingly walk it. I ask this blessing for each of you as a gift from God - God the Father of all of us, Father of all confessions - and I ask this blessing especially for those who have lost their lives while exercising their service and for their loved ones. I also ask you to pray for me. Thank you.
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