The pope has asked judges in Africa and the Americas to commit themselves to heal the pain of others and not to fall into indifference. He did this during a video message to the participants of the international meeting of judges. These judges are members of the Committee for Social Rights of Africa and the Americas.
Pope Francis encouraged the reflections by inviting them not to think disconnected from reality.
DIMENSION OF REALITY
POPE FRANCIS
Do not lose sight of the distressing picture in which a small part of humanity lives in great wealth, while an increasing number are being stripped of their dignity and their most basic rights are ignored or violated.
WAYS JUSTICE IS ACHIEVED
The pope also invited them to discuss how justice can be achieved, recalling that every day, an effort that is achieved, is a milestone.
POPE FRANCIS
I am thinking of a collective effort. A joint effort, where everyone and all well-intentioned people challenge the utopia and assume that, just like goodness and love, what is right is a task to be conquered every day, because the imbalance is a temptation that occurs every minute.
ATTITUDE OF COMMITMENT
He recalled that 'it is not only a matter of uniting to shape this new social justice. It is necessary to do it with an attitude of commitment,' and he gave them the example of the Good Samaritan.
POPE FRANCIS
We have to assume that we have become accustomed to ignoring the situations until they hit us directly. The unconditional commitment is to take charge of the other's pain and not to slip into a culture of indifference. It is prevalent to look the other way.
SHOW SOLIDARITY AND FAIRNESS
He asked them to fight against the culture that leads to using others and ends up taking away their dignity. The pope encouraged them not to forget that solidarity, in its most profound sense, is a way of making history.
POPE FRANCIS
In solidarity, fight against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, lack of work, land, and housing. Housing, land, and employment, the three elements that anoint us with dignity. Fighting, in short, against those who deny social and labor rights.
In the end, the pope asked this group of judges that 'everything they build on social justice be more than mere theory, but rather a new and urgent judicial practice.'
Daniel Díaz Vizzi
Translation: Christian Campos
