Pope Francis met with participants of the Fifth Conference of the Rosario Livatino Center of Studies. Rosario was a judge killed by the mafia in the early 90s.
The president of the center offered a few words of welcome.
“Holy Father, I address you on behalf of the Rosario Livatino Center of Studies. It was founded five years ago by a group of magistrates, lawyers, notaries and university professors.”
Pope Francis reminded participants of Livatino's awareness of a judge's role. He said a judge has to defend objective rights and not sell himself for anyone's personal interests.
POPE FRANCIS
He understood the signs which emerged with great evidence in successive decades, not only in Italy. In other words, the judge's invasion of other fields, especially the field of “new rights,” with sentences that seem to satisfy new desires, detached from any objective limit.
Rosario Livatino's assassination moved even then-pope John Paul II, who called him a “martyr for justice and indirectly for the faith.”
Javier Romero
Translation: Claudia Torres
