For some time now, among our daily activities, there has been that of "scrolling", consciously or not, news, information from sites or social networks to have a quick update of the world "outside". In real time we are present to facts and news, to what happens even a thousand kilometers away from us, simply with a click. This is a beautiful aspect of our interconnected time, in which, even with these means, we can grow in "making the world one family" (motto of San Guido Maria Conforti), taking an interest and making ourselves close to other peoples.
Everything can be an opportunity and a resource, but it is also necessary to know its limits and risks. I focus on the latter, on those that concern social and political aspects. From "Like" - "little hand raised or lowered" - to commenting on simple news, we have easily moved on to communicating political positions with concise slogans, with information methods that simplify complex situations, even for professionals in the economic, social and political sectors, to coffee talk, with simplistic and polarized explanations, deliberately accessible to everyone. Thus, just as in the time of Covid-19 many posed as expert virologists and epidemiologists, today social networks are full of experts in geopolitics, defense and peace.
Instead, we should humbly accept not understanding our time, diminishing any claim to superiority and accepting the challenge of dialoguing with any enemy in truth and justice. I believe a sort of Copernican revolution is needed, which allows us to move from placing our country at the center of the world to placing Humanity, the common good and whole of creation at the center instead.
We cannot remain inert and silent in the face of massacres and horrendous crimes against children and civilians, doctors, journalists... the destruction of hospitals, refugee and displaced centers... up to the catastrophe in Gaza, where even humanitarian aid is denied to its inhabitants. We cannot continue to live as if nothing had happened.
Alexei Navalny, a Russian political activist against Putin's regime, said that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." We continue to worry about what to eat and what to wear, while Jesus said that each day has enough of its problems and invited us to seek the Kingdom of God and His justice (Mt 6:25-34). Seek that Kingdom, the Kingdom of love, brotherhood, justice, communion and peace that is built, patiently and actively, with collaboration and cooperation between peoples.
This is not a utopia, it is the only way we have. We have the tools, we have international humanitarian law, we have entities, organizations and people who have the authority and the ability to carry forward projects of peace and justice. "No peace is possible without true disarmament!", Pope Francis told us in his last words on April 20th. In continuity, Pope Leo begins his pontificate by invoking the Peace of the Risen Christ and asking for an "unarmed and disarming peace". I believe that this peace comes from the heart, from the vision we have of each other: that he is not the enemy to be defeated, but the brother/sister to be found again.
