In meeting the members of the “Alfonsian Academy”, the Pope asked to exercise “the search for common solutions that recognize and guarantee respect for the sacredness of all life, in any condition.”
Pope Francis received this Thursday, March 23, at the Vatican, the participants in the Conference promoted by the Alphonsian Academy on the theme “Saint Alfonso, Pastor of the least and Doctor of the Church. The actuality of the Alphonsian moral proposal between challenges and hope.
The Holy Father recalled that “the love of God is our guide, the guide of our personal choices and of our existential journey.”The Pope highlighted the Alphonsian tradition exercised from the Academy to create ” a proposal for a Christian life that, respecting the demands of theological reflection, is not a cold and desk morality.”
Next, the Pontiff spoke of the importance of formation, and stated that “only people endowed with a mature conscience will be able to exercise, in society, a healthy evangelical leadership at the service of the brothers.”
Later, the Pope pointed out the importance of “the search for common solutions that recognize and guarantee respect for the sacredness of all life, in any condition.”
According to the Pope, “only in this way will it be possible to develop reasonable and solid arguments in the field of bioethics, rooted in faith, suitable for adult and responsible consciences and capable of inspiring sociopolitical debate.”
In this sense, he stressed that “we must flee from extremist polarizing dynamics, typically more of the media debate than of healthy and fruitful scientific and theological research.”
In addition, the Holy Father encouraged those present to be attentive to the “real dramas of the people” and to make “the fruits of your labor accessible using the ‘language of the people’ and developing practicable and humanizing proposals for a moral life.”
As a third area, he spoke about issues of social morality and pointed out that “the environmental crisis, the ecological transition, war, a financial system capable of conditioning people’s lives to the point of creating new slaves, the challenge of building fraternity between people and between peoples” issues “that should stimulate us to research and dialogue”.
Likewise, the Pope regretted that in recent years we have faced “ serious moral problems, such as emigration and pedophilia; today we see the urgency of adding others, such as the benefits concentrated in a few hands and the division of world powers”.
In conclusion, Pope Francis declared that “the Church expects the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy to know how to reconcile scientific rigor and closeness to the People of God.”
“That it give concrete answers to real problems and that it formulates human moral proposals, attentive to the salvific Truth and the good of people”, he concluded.