The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp is celebrated on 27 January. "The anniversary of the unspeakable cruelty that humanity discovered seventy-five years ago is a call to stop, to be silent and remember. We need it, in order not to become indifferent". Pope Francis said so when he received a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center at the audience.
"Today's consumerism - added the Pope - is also verbal: how many useless words, how much time wasted contesting and accusing, how many offenses screamed, regardless of what is said. Silence, on the other hand, helps to preserve memory. we lose our memory, we destroy the future ". The Pope then recalled his visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau: "There, in 2016, I stopped to internalize, to pray in silence. Today, absorbed in the vortex of things, we struggle to stop, to look inside, to be silent to listen to the cry of suffering humanity ".
Populisms, "fertile grounds" for hatred, are born of indifference, the Pontiff said. "Concerns the increase, in many parts of the world, of a selfish indifference, for which only what is convenient for oneself is concerned: life is good if it is good for me and when something is wrong, anger and wickedness are unleashed Thus fertile grounds are prepared for the particularisms and populisms that we see around us. Hatred grows rapidly on these grounds ".
"Recently - Francesco therefore recalled - we have witnessed barbaric resurgences of anti-Semitism. I do not tire of firmly condemning any form of anti-Semitism. To face the root problem, however, we must also commit ourselves to tilling the soil on which hatred grows, sowing seeds In fact, it is through integration, research and understanding of the other that we protect ourselves most ".
"Therefore - he stressed - it is urgent to reintegrate those who are marginalized, to reach out to those who are far away, to support those who are discarded because they have no means and money, to help those who are victims of intolerance and discrimination. We are called, the Pope added, referring to Jews and Christians, "just us, first", "not to distance themselves and exclude, but to make ourselves close and include; not to support strength solutions, but to start proximity paths. If we do not do it, who believe in the One who, from the skies above, remembered us and took our weaknesses to heart, who will do it? "" We too remember the past and take the conditions to heart of those who suffer: thus we will cultivate the soil of fraternity ".
Jews and Christians, he concluded, have a common desire "to make the world a better place with respect for human dignity, a dignity that belongs to everyone equally regardless of origin, religion and social status. It is so important to educate tolerance and mutual understanding, freedom of religion and the promotion of social peace ".