Pope Francis calls for “eradicating situations that protect those who hide behind their position to impose themselves on others in a perverse way,” in a speech addressed to the participants of the III Latin American Congress Vulnerability and Abuse: Towards a Broader View of Organized Prevention by the Center for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME).
Pope Francis has stated in his speech that, in the field of prevention, efforts must be made to “eradicate situations that protect those who hide behind their position to impose themselves on others in a perverse way” and, at the same time, “understand why he is incapable of relating to others healthily.”
Likewise, the Pontiff has encouraged us not to be indifferent to the reason “why some agree to go against their conscience, out of fear, or allow themselves to be deceived with false promises, knowing deep in their hearts that they are on the wrong path.”
Furthermore, he has considered that “humanizing relationships in any society, also in the Church, means working hard to form mature, coherent people who, firm in their faith and ethical principles, are capable of confronting evil, bearing witness.” of truth with capital letters.”
For Pope Francis, “a society that is not based on these assumptions of moral integrity will be a sick society, with human and institutional relations perverted by selfishness, distrust, fear and deception.”
The Pontiff has encouraged us to contemplate the problem of abuse “with the eyes of God”, in such a way that the “divinized gaze” helps “our understanding of vulnerability, since the Lord has drawn strength from the weak, making fragility its own testimony’”, as stated in the Preface of the Martyrs.
“God calls us to an absolute change of mentality regarding our conception of relationships, privileging the minor, the poor, the servant, the ignorant, over the elder, the rich, the master, the literate, based on the capacity to welcome the grace that is given to us by God and to make ourselves a gift for others,” Pope Francis expressed.
The Holy Father has denounced that “seeing one’s own weakness as an excuse to stop being complete people and complete Christians, incapable of assuming control of their destiny, will create infantile, resentful people, and in no way represents the smallness to which Jesus invites us”.
In the opposite sense, he added, “the strength of him who, like Saint Paul, glories in his weaknesses and trusts in the grace of the Lord is a gift that we must ask on our knees for ourselves and for others,” because with it “We will be able to face the contradictions of life and make a contribution to the common good in the vocation to which we have been called.”