At 12:10pm today (6:10am EDT) in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the National Association of State Police.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet with you today and to share wishes and resolutions with you and with your entire National Association. I thank your President, the Head of the State Police, for his words and I greet all those who are part of the Association. It unites the members of the Police who are still on the job wth those who, even though they have finished their service, still feel part of it and carry forward its ideals. The Association proposes to pass on the traditions of the State Police (Statute, article 2.1) favouring the union of all its members, whether they are on leave or in service. In this way the experience of the elderly members and their historical-cultural heritage is enhanced. This treasure should not be lost; it should be handed down and increased, for it helps to strengthen the link between various generations, a link that is sometimes unfortunately compromised in the context of social relations.
It is very significant that some members of the public can participate in your Association, even if they are not members of the Police; in this way, they take on their values and their commitment and together constitute a great family: a family open to all those who want to commit themselves to the common good starting with your principles. Yours is a family that would like to involve and welcome every citizen, to spread a culture of legality, respect and security.
Without these foundations, no social context can achieve the common good, but it will sooner or later become a tangle of personal interests, unrelated to each other, even opposed. The good of a society, in fact, is not determined by the well-being of the majority, nor by the respect of the rights of almost all. Instead, it is found by the good of the collectivity as a group of people, so that, as long as someone suffers, all the members suffer with him (cf 1 Cor 12:26).
When legality and security are lacking, the weak are always the first to be damaged, because they have less means to defend themselves and provide for themselves. In fact, every injustice affects the poor most acutely, and all those who in various ways can be called last. Last in our world are those who leave their land because of war and misery, and must start from scratch in a completely new context; the last are those who have lost their homes and jobs, and are struggling to support their families; the last are those who live marginalized and sick, or those who are victims of injustice and abuse. To all of them you are close when you try to prevent crime and you work to combat bullying and fraud; when you put your time and energy into the training of young people and into the supervision of schools, into the protection of the territory and of the artistic heritage; into organizing conferences and training for a more active and conscious citizenship.
It is a matter of satisfaction and hope to see how many areas are reached by your initiatives, moved not by attention to a single aspect of civil life, but by concern for people, which you reach in every situation of need or in the pitfalls in which they can find themselves, like any good parent who does not limit himself to telling his son once and for all that he must be careful of the dangers, but who is interested in the various pitfalls he might face, and who is gradually trying to teach him and accompany him.
I thank you for the message of sharing and solidarity that you transmit, often in hidden demonstrations of your commitment. Aim to become more and more promoters of this loving care of people, which is the synthesis of your own ideals, knowing that you are capable of generating new relationships and giving life to a more just order. In fact, with your commitment you contribute to the insertion, in the midst of society, of the ferment of equality and of fraternity, which never fails to produce its fruit.
We see this clearly if we consider the first centuries of Christianity: how the values transmitted by the Gospel have radically transformed the life and mentality of all human society. This is how the proclamation of brotherhood among all men, brought about by the first disciples of Jesus and their successors, has gradually undermined the bases on which slavery was justified, to the point where it was perceived as a sinful institution and provoked its extinction. In the same way, the message of a God who dies on the cross without accusing but forgiving, and accepting suffering and humiliation out of love, has overturned the hierarchy of values and given new dignity to derelicts and the excluded. Furthermore, Jesus' actions towards women, the sick and the children marked a profound cultural turning point in relation to everything that came before Christ, and he branded every attitude of violence as unjust for future centuries and disinterest in these categories of people.
I have briefly recalled some fruits of the spread of the Gospel message in human society, to help you always keep in mind how the placing of the values of solidarity and peace, which find their summit in the person and message of Jesus, have been capable, and the are still able today, to renew interpersonal and social relationships. It is precisely what we hope for our time, knowing that when we practice charity, it changes the world and history, even if we do not immediately notice its effects. This is our goal, and this is what you contribute to doing as a National Association of State Police whenever, following the example of your Patron Saint Michael the Archangel, you oppose everything that hurts or destroys mankind.
Greeting all of you, I thank you for the work you carry out with such dedication, and ask you to pray for me as I invoke on your Association and all its members the blessing and protection of God. Thank you.
(Original text in Italian)
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the members of the
National Association of State Police
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet with you today and to share wishes and resolutions with you and with your entire National Association. I thank your President, the Head of the State Police, for his words and I greet all those who are part of the Association. It unites the members of the Police who are still on the job wth those who, even though they have finished their service, still feel part of it and carry forward its ideals. The Association proposes to pass on the traditions of the State Police (Statute, article 2.1) favouring the union of all its members, whether they are on leave or in service. In this way the experience of the elderly members and their historical-cultural heritage is enhanced. This treasure should not be lost; it should be handed down and increased, for it helps to strengthen the link between various generations, a link that is sometimes unfortunately compromised in the context of social relations.
It is very significant that some members of the public can participate in your Association, even if they are not members of the Police; in this way, they take on their values and their commitment and together constitute a great family: a family open to all those who want to commit themselves to the common good starting with your principles. Yours is a family that would like to involve and welcome every citizen, to spread a culture of legality, respect and security.
Without these foundations, no social context can achieve the common good, but it will sooner or later become a tangle of personal interests, unrelated to each other, even opposed. The good of a society, in fact, is not determined by the well-being of the majority, nor by the respect of the rights of almost all. Instead, it is found by the good of the collectivity as a group of people, so that, as long as someone suffers, all the members suffer with him (cf 1 Cor 12:26).
When legality and security are lacking, the weak are always the first to be damaged, because they have less means to defend themselves and provide for themselves. In fact, every injustice affects the poor most acutely, and all those who in various ways can be called last. Last in our world are those who leave their land because of war and misery, and must start from scratch in a completely new context; the last are those who have lost their homes and jobs, and are struggling to support their families; the last are those who live marginalized and sick, or those who are victims of injustice and abuse. To all of them you are close when you try to prevent crime and you work to combat bullying and fraud; when you put your time and energy into the training of young people and into the supervision of schools, into the protection of the territory and of the artistic heritage; into organizing conferences and training for a more active and conscious citizenship.
It is a matter of satisfaction and hope to see how many areas are reached by your initiatives, moved not by attention to a single aspect of civil life, but by concern for people, which you reach in every situation of need or in the pitfalls in which they can find themselves, like any good parent who does not limit himself to telling his son once and for all that he must be careful of the dangers, but who is interested in the various pitfalls he might face, and who is gradually trying to teach him and accompany him.
I thank you for the message of sharing and solidarity that you transmit, often in hidden demonstrations of your commitment. Aim to become more and more promoters of this loving care of people, which is the synthesis of your own ideals, knowing that you are capable of generating new relationships and giving life to a more just order. In fact, with your commitment you contribute to the insertion, in the midst of society, of the ferment of equality and of fraternity, which never fails to produce its fruit.
We see this clearly if we consider the first centuries of Christianity: how the values transmitted by the Gospel have radically transformed the life and mentality of all human society. This is how the proclamation of brotherhood among all men, brought about by the first disciples of Jesus and their successors, has gradually undermined the bases on which slavery was justified, to the point where it was perceived as a sinful institution and provoked its extinction. In the same way, the message of a God who dies on the cross without accusing but forgiving, and accepting suffering and humiliation out of love, has overturned the hierarchy of values and given new dignity to derelicts and the excluded. Furthermore, Jesus' actions towards women, the sick and the children marked a profound cultural turning point in relation to everything that came before Christ, and he branded every attitude of violence as unjust for future centuries and disinterest in these categories of people.
I have briefly recalled some fruits of the spread of the Gospel message in human society, to help you always keep in mind how the placing of the values of solidarity and peace, which find their summit in the person and message of Jesus, have been capable, and the are still able today, to renew interpersonal and social relationships. It is precisely what we hope for our time, knowing that when we practice charity, it changes the world and history, even if we do not immediately notice its effects. This is our goal, and this is what you contribute to doing as a National Association of State Police whenever, following the example of your Patron Saint Michael the Archangel, you oppose everything that hurts or destroys mankind.
Greeting all of you, I thank you for the work you carry out with such dedication, and ask you to pray for me as I invoke on your Association and all its members the blessing and protection of God. Thank you.
(Original text in Italian)
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