Pope Francis to Police "....as long as someone suffers, "all the members suffer with him" (cf. 1 Cor 12:26)." FULL TEXT + Video
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL POLICE STATE ASSOCIATION
Paul VI Hall
Saturday, 29 September 2018
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet you today and to share, together with your entire National Association, wishes and resolutions. 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 still in operation and those who, even having 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) favoring the union of all its members, on leave or in service. In this way the experience of the elderly members and their historical-cultural heritage is enhanced, which should not be dispersed, but handed down and increased, and helps to strengthen the link between the generations, 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 neither members of the Police, they take on their values and their commitment. Constitute as a great family: a family open to all those who want to commit themselves to the common good starting from your principles; 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 given by the well-being of the majority, or by the respect of the rights of "almost all". Instead, it is given 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 weakest are always the first to be damaged, because they have less means to defend themselves and provide for themselves. In fact, every injustice affects above all the poorest, 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 ones 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 are victims of injustice and abuse. To all of them you are close to you when you try to prevent crime and you work to combat bullying and fraud; when you put your time and energy in the training of young people and in the supervision of schools, in the protection of the territory and of the artistic heritage; in organizing conferences and training for a more active and aware 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 solicitude for people, which you reach in every situation of need or in the pitfalls in which they can find themselves. , as a good parent does, who does not limit himself to telling his son once and for all that he must be careful of the dangers, but he is interested in the various pitfalls he might face, and he is gradually trying to teach him and accompany him.
I thank you therefore for the message of sharing and solidarity that you transmit, in an often hidden commitment. Become more and more promoters of this loving care of people, which is the synthesis of your own ideals, knowing that it is 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 mixture of society, of the ferment of equality and of fraternity, which never fails to produce its fruit.
We see it well 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 by the first disciples of Jesus and their successors, has gradually undermined the bases on which slavery was justified, until it is perceived as an iniquitous institution and provokes 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 the 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 or violence as unjust for future centuries. disinterest in these categories of people.
I briefly recalled some fruits of the diffusion of the Gospel message in human society, to 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 are still 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 man.
In greeting you, I thank you for the work you carry out with such dedication, and asking your prayer for me, I invoke on your Association and all its members the blessing and protection of God. Thank you.
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