Pope Francis met with members of the Italian State Police’s anti-crime unit and urged them to “save” women, that is, to keep them safe from repeated threats and harm, and to accompany them at every stage. Furthermore, the Pope also stressed the importance of prevention and education.
(Vatican News Network)Justice should be done as soon as possible, but it shouldn’t be done in haste; violence against women should be prevented, protected, educated and supported at all stages to ensure that women are free from repeated threats and harm. Pope Francis underlined this when he received the members of the anti-crime unit of the Italian State Police in the Vatican on 26 November.
The day before the interview, November 25 was the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” established by the United Nations. On this occasion, the Pope pointed out to the Italian police that violence against women is one of the scourges of our time. “Many women are often not only isolated and powerless in the face of certain situations of violence, but also do not receive justice after reporting the incident, or justice takes a long time and is far away”.
Furthermore, the Pope made a direct appeal to the State “so that the parties involved in the case are accompanied at every stage and justice can be done for the victims as soon as possible”. The first and most urgent task is to “save” the women, i.e. “to ensure their safety as far as possible from immediate threats and repeated harm”.
To achieve this goal, “fighting crime alone is not enough”. The Pope invited everyone to “be united, to cooperate, to form a network: not just a safety net, but a prevention network”. The social scourge we are trying to eradicate “is also linked to deeply rooted cultural attitudes, thoughts and prejudices”.
Among the police officers present were many female police officers. Appreciating it, the Pope said: “This is an important resource: women help other women. You understand them better, you listen to them, you support them”.
Furthermore, specialized psychological and spiritual preparation is precious “because only by going deep can peace and calm be found and preserved, thus transmitting trust to the victims of brutal violence”. Many Christian women are an example of this, for example: S. Lucia, S. Maria Goretti.
Speaking of the two directives of prevention and education, the Pope spoke in particular of the family. “We have seen that, due to the forced quarantine, the pandemic has unfortunately intensified certain dynamics within the family. It intensifies, it does not create: these are actually underlying tensions that can be addressed early on at an educational level,” he said. . in this field he must provide help to families, and not leave them defenceless. Conflicts will naturally erupt in troubled families if they are seriously affected by the consequences of the economic and social crisis and are not adequately supported.
Another key factor is diffusion. “If the mass media continue to present messages that promote hedonism and consumerism, in which men and women show that they obey the codes of success, complacency, comparison, attention and manipulation, then here too, Nor we can hypocritically express sorrow for certain current events”.
The Pope exhorted to “centre educational action on human dignity”, citing the example of Saint Josephine Bakhita. Suffering “heavy violence” in her childhood, the saint “received the Gospel of God’s love, she was fully redeemed and became a witness of freedom and healing power”.
The Pope concluded by emphasizing that Santa Brigida was not the only witness. In addition to her, there are many “holy women next door”. With their lives “they testify that there is no need to submit, and that the love, care and mutual assistance of brothers and sisters can save people from slavery”. Their testimonies are also presented to the young men and women of today.
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