The Pope: “one part of humanity lives in opulence, the other is despised” — Message of Francis at the Gregorian University on Human Rights, 70 years after the Universal Declaration

“In fact,” Bergoglio empha­sizes with evi­dent bit­ter­ness, “look­ing care­ful­ly at our con­tem­po­rary soci­eties, there are numer­ous con­tra­dic­tions that lead us to ask our­selves whether the equal dig­ni­ty of all human beings, solemn­ly pro­claimed 70 years ago, is real­ly rec­og­nized, respect­ed, pro­tect­ed and pro­mot­ed in all cir­cum­stances. In fact, “numer­ous forms of injus­tice seem to pre­vail, nour­ished by reduc­tive anthro­po­log­i­cal visions, and by an eco­nom­ic mod­el based on prof­it that does not hes­i­tate to exploit, dis­card and even kill men and women”. “While a part of human­i­ty lives in opu­lence, anoth­er part sees their own dig­ni­ty dis­owned, despised or tram­pled on and their fun­da­men­tal rights ignored or vio­lat­ed,” the Pope denounces.