Pope: the Shoah and Asia Bibi, examples of falsehood used to condemn innocent people
Let us pray that "in this time, as the decrees are issued to emerge from lockdown, let us pray to the Lord to give His people, to give all of us, the grace of prudence and obedience to these decrees, so that the pandemic does not return".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Shoah and Asia Bibi are two examples of how falsehoods can be built to condemn an innocent person or people, said Pope Francis this morning at mass celebrated at Casa Santa Marta.
He was commenting on the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 7.51-8.1), in which Stephen speaks with courage to the people, the elderly and the scribes, who judge him with false testimonies, drag him out of the city and stone him.
In the introduction to the rite, he invited us to pray so that "in this time, as the decrees are issued to emerge from lockdown, let us pray to the Lord to give His people, to give all of us, the grace of prudence and obedience to these decrees, so that the pandemic does not return".
In his homily he stressed that in order to kill Stephen, whose "clarity of doctrine was intolerable to them", the doctors of the Law "went to ask someone to say they had heard that Stephen swore against God, against the Law. And after this, they fell upon him and stoned him: as simply as this. This mode of acting was not new: they had done the same with Jesus".
“It's a bestiality. A bestiality, starting from false testimonies used to 'do justice'. This is the pattern. " "Even today - he said then - we see it, this: even today it is taking place, in some countries, when there is a coup d'etat or an attempt to remove some politicians from a political race, this is done: false news, slander, then enter a judge of those who like to create jurisprudence with this 'situationist' positivism which is fashionable, and then condemnation. It is a social lynching. This is what was done to Stephan, this was Stephan’s judgement: they lead to judge one already judged by the deceived people ".
“This also happens with today's martyrs: that judges have no chance of doing justice because they are already judged. Think of Asia Bibi, for example, we have seen this: ten years in prison because she had been judged by slander and people who wanted her to die. Faced with this avalanche of fake news that creates opinion, often nothing can be done: nothing can be done ".
“In this, I think a lot about the Shoah. The Shoah is such a case: the opinion was created against a people and it was normal: "Yes, yes: they must be killed, they must be killed". A mode of acting to get rid of people who annoy, disturb”.
"We all know this is not good, but what we don't know is that there is a small daily lynching that tries to condemn people, to create a bad reputation for people, to discard them, to condemn them: the small daily lynching of gossip that creates an opinion, and often when someone hears someone talking, he says: 'But no, this person is a just person!' - 'No, no: it is said that ...', and with that 'it is said that' an opinion is created to do away with a person. The truth is another: truth is the testimony of the truth, of the things that a person believes; the truth is clear, it is transparent. Truth does not tolerate pressure. Let's look at Stephen, martyr: first martyr after Jesus. First martyr. Let us think of the apostles: all have witnessed. And we think of many martyrs who - even today, St. Peter Chanel – the gossip, that created the opinion that he was against the king ... an infamy is created, and he must be killed. And think of us, of our use of language: Often, with our comments, we start such a lynching. And in our Christian institutions, we have seen so many daily lynchings that arise from gossip. May the Lord - the closing prayer - help us to be fair in our judgments, not to begin or follow this considerable condemnation that gossip causes”.
.png)
