Pope Francis Entrusts to the Lord the Work to Eradicate "the scourge of abuse in all areas of society” - Calling All to Pray and See the “suffering face of Jesus in each of the victims.”
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MESSAGE FROM THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE III LATIN AMERICAN CONGRESS ON THE TOPIC:
"VULNERABILITY AND ABUSE"
[Panama, 12-14 March 2024]
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE III LATIN AMERICAN CONGRESS ON THE TOPIC:
"VULNERABILITY AND ABUSE"
[Panama, 12-14 March 2024]
Promoted by the Center for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME),
Pope Francis sends a message to participants in a safeguarding conference in Panama, and calls on Church institutions to eradicate situations that protect abusers who hide behind their positions of authority.
Pope Francis sends a message to participants in a safeguarding conference in Panama, and calls on Church institutions to eradicate situations that protect abusers who hide behind their positions of authority.
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Esteemed congressmen,
I would like to send my greetings to you, the organizers and participants in this III Latin American Congress promoted by CEPROME with the title "Vulnerability and abuse: towards a broader vision of prevention" and entrust your work to the Lord to continue to advance in the eradication of the scourge of abuses in all areas of society.
In my meeting last September 25 with a delegation from this Council, I highlighted the Church's commitment to seeing the face of the suffering Jesus in each of the victims. But also the need to place at his feet "the suffering that we have received and caused", praying "for the most unhappy and desperate sinners, for their conversion, so that they can see in others the eyes of Jesus that challenge them".
On that occasion I invited you, and I also invite you today, to see this problem with the eyes of God, to establish a dialogue with Him. This divinized gaze can help our understanding of vulnerability, since the Lord has drawn "strength from weakness , making fragility its own testimony" (see Preface of the Martyrs, I). God calls us to an absolute change of mentality on our conception of relationships, privileging the minor, the poor, the servant, the ignorant over the greater, the rich, the master, the cultured, based on the ability to welcome the grace that is given by God and to make ourselves a gift for others.
Seeing one's fragility as an excuse to stop being serious people and upright Christians, incapable of taking control of one's own destiny, will create infantile, resentful people, and in no way represents the smallness to which Jesus invites us. On the contrary, strength of the one who, like Saint Paul, boasts of his own weaknesses and trusts in the grace of the Lord (see 2 Cor 12, 8-10) is a gift that we must ask for on our knees for ourselves and for others. With it, we will be able to face the contradictions of life and make a contribution to the common good in the vocation to which we have been called.
Regarding prevention, our work must undoubtedly aim to eradicate the situations that protect those who use their position as a shield to impose themselves on others in a perverse way, but also to understand why they are incapable of relating to others in a healthy way. Likewise, the reason why some agree to go against their conscience, out of fear, or allow themselves to be duped by false promises, knowing deep down in their hearts that they are on the wrong path, cannot be indifferent. Humanizing relationships in every society, even in the Church, means working with courage to form mature, coherent people who, firm in their faith and ethical principles, are capable of facing evil, bearing witness to the truth with a capital letter.
A society that is not based on these presuppositions of moral integrity will be a sick society, with human and institutional relationships distorted by selfishness, mistrust, fear and deception. But we entrust our weakness to the strength that the Lord gives us. And we recognize that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may appear that this extraordinary power comes from God and not from us" (2 Cor 4:7).
We ask the King of martyrs for this grace to be witnesses of him in the world. May He bless you and the Holy Virgin keep you. And please don't forget to pray for me.
Rome, San Giovanni in Laterano, 1 March 2024
Francis
_________________________________
Translation from L'Osservatore Romano, ed. daily newspaper of March 12, 2024 provided by the Vatican Press Bulletin
Esteemed congressmen,
I would like to send my greetings to you, the organizers and participants in this III Latin American Congress promoted by CEPROME with the title "Vulnerability and abuse: towards a broader vision of prevention" and entrust your work to the Lord to continue to advance in the eradication of the scourge of abuses in all areas of society.
In my meeting last September 25 with a delegation from this Council, I highlighted the Church's commitment to seeing the face of the suffering Jesus in each of the victims. But also the need to place at his feet "the suffering that we have received and caused", praying "for the most unhappy and desperate sinners, for their conversion, so that they can see in others the eyes of Jesus that challenge them".
On that occasion I invited you, and I also invite you today, to see this problem with the eyes of God, to establish a dialogue with Him. This divinized gaze can help our understanding of vulnerability, since the Lord has drawn "strength from weakness , making fragility its own testimony" (see Preface of the Martyrs, I). God calls us to an absolute change of mentality on our conception of relationships, privileging the minor, the poor, the servant, the ignorant over the greater, the rich, the master, the cultured, based on the ability to welcome the grace that is given by God and to make ourselves a gift for others.
Seeing one's fragility as an excuse to stop being serious people and upright Christians, incapable of taking control of one's own destiny, will create infantile, resentful people, and in no way represents the smallness to which Jesus invites us. On the contrary, strength of the one who, like Saint Paul, boasts of his own weaknesses and trusts in the grace of the Lord (see 2 Cor 12, 8-10) is a gift that we must ask for on our knees for ourselves and for others. With it, we will be able to face the contradictions of life and make a contribution to the common good in the vocation to which we have been called.
Regarding prevention, our work must undoubtedly aim to eradicate the situations that protect those who use their position as a shield to impose themselves on others in a perverse way, but also to understand why they are incapable of relating to others in a healthy way. Likewise, the reason why some agree to go against their conscience, out of fear, or allow themselves to be duped by false promises, knowing deep down in their hearts that they are on the wrong path, cannot be indifferent. Humanizing relationships in every society, even in the Church, means working with courage to form mature, coherent people who, firm in their faith and ethical principles, are capable of facing evil, bearing witness to the truth with a capital letter.
A society that is not based on these presuppositions of moral integrity will be a sick society, with human and institutional relationships distorted by selfishness, mistrust, fear and deception. But we entrust our weakness to the strength that the Lord gives us. And we recognize that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may appear that this extraordinary power comes from God and not from us" (2 Cor 4:7).
We ask the King of martyrs for this grace to be witnesses of him in the world. May He bless you and the Holy Virgin keep you. And please don't forget to pray for me.
Rome, San Giovanni in Laterano, 1 March 2024
Francis
_________________________________
Translation from L'Osservatore Romano, ed. daily newspaper of March 12, 2024 provided by the Vatican Press Bulletin
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