Pope opens Vatican judicial year: Doing justice requires the virtue of courage

By Lisa Zengarini

In his address delivered on Saturday to mark the inauguration of the 95th Judicial Year in the Vatican City State, Pope Francis focused on the virtue of courage needed to administer justice.

A “healthy audacity” that does not aim at self-promotion

He started by recalling that for Christians this virtue is not only a particular quality of heroic individuals but rather, “a trait that is given and enhanced in encountering Christ, as a fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit that anyone can receive if we invoke Him.” It is expressed particularly in “the ability to act with patience and perseverance, rejecting internal and external pressures that hinder the accomplishment of good.”

Without this “healthy audacity”, that “does not aim at self-promotion, but at solidarity” with the weaker in society, he noted, there is a risk of “neglecting many small and large injustices.”

Justice is always an act of charity

As we admire the courage of all those  men and women who suffer war or human rights violations in the world, including many persecuted Christians , the Pope remarked  that we are all called  "to commit ourselves to the future of our children, to safeguard the common home, to take on our professional responsibilities.”  This  is particularly true for the administration of justice: In fact, along with the prudence, charity, temperance, “the task of judging requires the virtues of fortitude and courage, without which wisdom risks remaining sterile.”

Courage in pursuing the truth

Pope Francis went on to recall recalled that in the jurisdictional function, courage is needed, in the first place, to thoroughly ascertain the truth, “remembering that doing justice is always an act of charity, an opportunity for fraternal correction aimed at helping the other recognize his mistake.” This – he stressed - is all the more true when particularly serious and scandalous behaviours emerge and must be sanctioned, “especially when they occur within the Christian community.”

Courage to ensure due process 

The same courage, the Pope continued , is needed “while striving to ensure the proper conduct of proceedings and facing criticism.”  The best response to outside criticism, he told the Vatican magistrates,  “is diligent silence and the seriousness of commitment to work, which allow our Tribunals to administer justice with authority and impartiality, ensuring due process while respecting the peculiarities of the Vatican legal system.”

The courage of prayer for discernment in doing justice

Finally, Pope Francis recalled the courage of prayer to implore that the “light of the Holy Spirit always illuminates the discernment necessary to reach a just verdict.” Prayer, he said, should never be considered “a waste of time” for their work.  

Among those attending the inauguration of the new Judicial Year were the President the Vice President of the Tribunal, and the Promoter of Justice, as well as the Presidents of the Courts of Appeal and Cassation. Also present were some representatives of Italian civil authorities.