"The duty" to combat crime, which today is
particularly cruel in organized crime and terrorism - that "has
transformed itself into an obscure web of political complicity " - while
remembering that "action against crime should always be conducted with
respect for human rights and the principles of the rule of law. "
The
fight against violence in fact is "must also aim at the reform and the
correction of the criminal, who remains always a human person " and must
include the direct political action to eliminate the causes that can
fuel violence.
The meeting this morning with the participants in the 81st
Interpol General Assembly gave Benedict XVI the opportunity to express
the point of view of the Church about the reality of crime and the fight
against it.
Im the first place, the Pope pointed out that "it is
important to strengthen collaboration and the exchange of expertise at a
time when, at a global level, we see a widening of the sources of
violence provoked by trans-national entities which hinder the progress
of humanity" . A collaboration that rightly "brings together politicians
responsible for security and justice, as well as judicial bodies and
the forces of law and order."
"We are aware - he added - that
violence today is taking on new forms. At the end of the Cold War
between the Eastern and Western blocks, there were high hopes,
especially where a form of institutionalized political violence was
ended by peaceful movements demanding freedom of peoples. However,
although some forms of violence seem to have decreased, especially the
number of military conflicts, there are others which are developing,
such as criminal violence which is responsible each year for the
majority of violent deaths in the world. Today, this phenomenon is so
dangerous that it is a gravely destabilizing threat to society and, at
times, poses a major challenge to the supremacy of the state".
"The
Church and the Holy See encourage all those who help to combat the
scourge of violence and crime, as our world resembles more and more a
global village. The gravest forms of criminal activities can be seen in
terrorism and organized crime. Terrorism, one of the most brutal forms
of violence, sows hate, death and a desire for revenge. This phenomenon,
with subversive strategies typical of some extremist organizations
aimed at the destruction of property and at murder, has transformed
itself into an obscure web of political complicity, with sophisticated
technology, enormous financial resources and planning projects on a vast
scale (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 513). For
its part, organized crime proliferates in ordinary places and often acts
and strikes in darkness, outside of any rules; it does its work through
numerous illicit and immoral activities, such as human trafficking - a
modern form of slavery - the smuggling of materials or substances such
as drugs, arms, contraband goods, even the traffic of pharmaceuticals,
used in large part by the poor, which kill instead of curing. This
illicit market becomes even more deplorable when it involves trafficking
the organs of innocent victims: they undergo physical and moral
humiliation which we had hoped were over after the tragedies of the
twentieth century but which, unfortunately, have again surfaced through
the violence generated by crime carried out by unscrupulous persons and
organizations. These crimes transgress the moral barriers which were
progressively built up by civilization and they reintroduce a form of
barbarism which denies man and his dignity."
The Pope stressed
that " violence in all its forms, whether crime or terrorism, is always
unacceptable, because it profoundly wounds human dignity and is an
offence against the whole of humanity " and that therefore "it is
necessary to combat criminal activities within the limits of moral and
juridical norms, since action against crime should always be carried out
with respect for the rights of each person and of the principles of the
rule of law".
The Pope concluded by saying that "it is essential that
the necessary work of containing crime be accompanied by a courageous
and lucid analysis of the underlying motives for such unacceptable
criminal acts. Special attention should be paid to the factors of social
exclusion and deprivation which persist in the population and which are
a vehicle for the spread of violence and hatred. Special effort should
also be made in the political and educational fields, to remedy the
problems which feed violence, and to foster conditions that prevent
violence from occurring or developing".