VATICAN CITY, FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).-
Here is a translation of the Italian-language address given today by Cardinal
Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, at the press
conference that presented Benedict XVI's message for Lent.
The Pope's message has as its theme: "The Justice of God Has Been Manifested
Through Faith in Jesus Christ." Lent begins Feb. 17.
* * *
In the autumn of last year some 250 bishops, priests and laymen gathered in
Rome on the occasion of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of
Bishops. For more than three weeks they reflected, under the presidency of
Pope Benedict XVI, on the topic "Reconciliation, Justice and Peace." As
president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, I also participated in the
discussions and in the formulation of proposals that are now at the
disposition of the Holy Father for the writing of the instructions on the
post-synodal document.
Those who followed the news on the synod, or who in fact were among its
members, know that the suffering and misery of the people of that continent
was constantly recalled, to the point that it became in a way the main topic.
Thus it was, for example, when Bishop Abegunrin of Osogbo in Nigeria said that
"bad government due to corruption, tribalism and the lack of respect for the
law impede justice and reconciliation. In Africa, from north to south, from
east to west, our young people are [...] the first victims of ethnic violence,
of genocide, of banditry, of crime, of the traffic in human beings, of
corruption and of the bad management of the State." So many interventions
pointed out similar difficulties. Extraordinary was the articulated special
report on Sudan and, in particular, on the province of Darfur. A lay African,
Rodolphe Adada, had three quarters of an hour to report in detail on the
Calvary that the population is going through in that region. The reporter is
the joint special representative of the General Secretariat of the United
Nations and of the president of the Commission of the African Union in Darfur,
Sudan.
He mentioned, among other things, that hostilities in Darfur began as early as
1989. In 2003, a group of rebels formed the Sudan Liberation Army, who hunted
the inhabitants of the province in their villages, so that thousands upon
thousands of persons had to escape to find refuge in camps. Some time ago I
had the opportunity to visit in person one such camp and I saw the misery of
the people who were there. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of persons
have met with death during the conflicts. The United Nations, the African
Union and the European Union have tirelessly promoted initiatives -- even if
at times probably with little conviction. To date one can certainly not speak
of a cessation of combat. The top representative of the United Nations
probably wished to reassure us and observed that in the meantime the conflict
is at this point of little intensity.
Hence, not without reason does the appeal for justice resound in the world.
Certainly the situation in the "dark continent" is particularly tragic. But,
as the president, Dr. Pottering, already explained, the world of politics and
the coexistence of peoples require everywhere this association between various
social forces. This is the field of justice. Justice is needed in relations
between groups and individuals. It is trampled on with violence, with the
suppression of liberty and with the lack of respect for human dignity, with
bad laws and with the violation of rights, with exploitation and with wages of
starvation.
This year, the Holy Father Benedict XVI's Lenten Message is about justice.
Given the many ways it is violated, he begins by giving the definition of the
term "justice," which in Western culture was already current beginning in the
third century: "Give each one his own -- cuique suum." Thus the Pope makes
clear that, first of all, the need formulated in such a definition must be
realized politically. Hence, there are social factors that are correct; and in
this struggle -- it must not be forgotten -- the Church has without a doubt
its merits. It would be a calumny to place us Christians among the well-to-do
who are opposed to just redistribution and have also continually taken
advantage of the defense of an unjust social order.
Denied would be the contribution of Christianity to the promotion of the
well-being and the dignity of the person. Following the example of Jesus,
already the first Christians made themselves responsible for mankind's needs.
Pope Callistus I (d. 222), who himself had been a slave, instituted a sort of
bank of the poor which sheltered widows and orphans from usurers, impeding
their being reduced to slavery. Basil of Cesarea (d. 379), better known as a
great theologian, was the first to found hospitals and, thanks to his personal
notoriety, became the advocate of so many of the oppressed in face of the
powerful -- as for example the Roman Emperor Valente (d. 378).
Or later, in that Medieval Age, which is said was so "dark," let us think of
the "Tregua Dei." The men of the Church made safe the goods of the simple
people in face of the nobility, inviting to mass protests that at the cry "Pax,
pax, pax" promoted the enthusiastic desire for peaceful coexistence; the
bishops, as confirmed in decrees of peace, brandished the pastors toward the
heavens. Coming from France, the movement of the "Tregua Dei" spread to Spain,
Italy and Germany. Then, in the modern era: when European States made other
countries and continents their colonies, subjecting them not rarely to savage
exploitation, Christian missionaries and religious not only took the faith to
the inhabitants of those lands, but often also taught them a style and quality
of life.
Certainly, in the meantime, our governments have also learned to do something
against the misery in distant countries. But it is still undeniable that even
in the 18th and 19th century one would seek in vain for "ministries for
development." In the past, Christians were among the first promoters of
greater justice. In their commitment in favor of peace they have nothing to
envy the effectiveness of State agencies, although not much is said about it.
The Synod of Bishops for Africa mentioned earlier has given eloquent testimony
of it.
However, whoever analyzes in a more precise way the contribution of the Church
in favor of peaceful understanding between human beings, soon observes that
the problem of a just coexistence cannot be resolved only with worldly
interventions. It goes beyond political categories. In so far as Church we
must push our thought beyond the horizon of society. Because of this, we would
underestimate the depth of the Pontiff's reflections, if we wish to consider
as already resolved the question that interests us with the claim to "give
each one his own." Thus the Pope teaches that this classic definition does not
consider sufficiently in what the granting of that "own" consists of. And it
does not take much to recognize that "his own" cannot be prescribed by law and
cannot be obtained with administrative measures.
The Pope observes that a full life depends on something that has the character
of a gift. Surpassing the merely mundane horizon in claiming justice, he says
unequivocally: "We can say that man lives from that love that only God can
communicate to him having created him to his image and likeness." Distributive
justice, which is pursued and which every promoter of peace recognizes, is not
yet able to give man all that of which he has need, his "own."
Like the Pope we must also go beyond the common way of conceiving anthropology
to attain a complete vision of man: thus the concept of justice reveals all
its content. Benedict XVI guides himself by the Word of God, but, choosing
this way, he in no way gets lost in idle speculation. He only confirms what we
see in ourselves and in history, if we look with sufficient attention. Evil
comes from within, from man's heart as the Lord says in the Gospel (cf. Mark
7:14 ff.). William Shakespeare and Georges Bernanos made us see it in their
works, as for example in "Richard III" or "Under Satan's Sun"; Stalin, for
example in Ukraine -- and Hitler -- in Auschwitz -- had no scruples in giving
full vent to their own malice. In fact the experience of evil teaches us that
it would be naive to entrusts ourselves only to human justice which intervenes
on structures and their conduct from outside. Men's hearts are in need of
being healed. To be healed from within is not the result of one's own effort;
each one must become conscious of his own condition. But man cannot heal by
his own effort, with physical and mental training. Pope Benedict says: "Hence,
to enter into justice it is necessary to come out of that illusion of
self-sufficiency, of that profound state of being shut-in, which is the very
origin of injustice."
As every year, the Lenten Message exhorts all men of our time to carry out
good actions. It does not omit soliciting a better distribution of food, water
and medicine. Then we see after the terrible earthquake in Haiti the great
generosity of very many people. But the Pope's message is above all a
challenge to our willingness to entrust ourselves to God and to believe in
Him. Hence he brings to the fore what is easily forgotten or silenced in
general discussions on justice and peace. To such a self-isolation far from
God -- one could speak of an "autism of man caused by secularization" -- Pope
Benedict opposes his firm reference to God and his offer of love. In fact, he
never misses the occasion to recall it in any of his important addresses; it
was no accident that also last Sunday he put God at the center of the brief
meditation before the Angelus. In this ever more self-sufficient world,
evidently he regards as his most important service that of witnessing God and
of urging men to entrust themselves to Him in faith.
In the last part of his Message, the Pope highlights the salvation of Christ
as the foundation of human justice. To evidence this he refers to a central
passage of the Letter of St. Paul to Christians of this, our city. Without
having merited it, men are justified by the grace of God through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 3:24). Thus every attempt to
obtain justice as one's merit is carried ad absurdum. Particularly for us
today this might seem only irritating, given that we constantly experience
that only that which we have earned with our effort belongs to us and that
nothing is given to us; given that we are ignored if we do not raise our voice
to claim that which is ours. Ordinary life today does not refer us to God; his
absence marks our daily experience. At other times we discover that the Gospel
is not in tune with bourgeois good sense and because of this, it must always
be proclaimed anew.
With the Pope's words: divine justice, which came in the blood of Christ, is
essentially different from human justice. "God paid for us in his Son the
price of ransom, a truly exorbitant price. In face of the justice of the Cross
man can rebel, because it makes evident that man is not a self-governing
being, but has need of Another to be fully himself. To be converted to Christ,
to believe in the Gospel, means at bottom this: to come out of the illusion of
self-sufficiency to discover and accept one's indigence -- indigence of others
and from God the need for his forgiveness and his friendship."
[Translation by ZENIT]