Speaking to God is like speaking to people: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because this is our God, he is triune; not an indefinite God dispersed in the air like a spray, more or less everywhere. This sums up the meaning of the reflection that Pope Francis presented in the homily he gave at the Mass celebrated this morning, Thursday, 18 April, in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The directors and police agents of the Inspectorate for Public Security in the Vatican took part in the Mass.

Concelebrating with the Pope among others were Archbishop Angelo Becciu, Substitute of the Secretariat of State, and Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops; Bishop Charles Scicluna, Auxiliary of Malta, and Bishop emeritus Flavio Roberto Carraro of Verona; Mons. José Bettencourt, Chief of Protocol of the Secretariat of State, Mons. Assunto Scotti, Office Head of the First Section of the Secretariat of State, and Mons. Giuseppe Saia, National Coordinator of Police Force Chaplains of the Italian State.

The rite was led by Mons. Guillermo Karcher, Papal Master of Ceremonies. Among the important figures present were Alessandro Marangoni, Vice-Chief of Police, Salvatore Festa, Director of the Office for Relations between the Vatican Authorities and the Italian Ministry of the Interior, and Enrico Avola, Director of the Inspectorate for Public Security at the Vatican.

At the end of Mass, after the prayer to St Michael Archangel, Patron of the Italian State Police, the Pope wished to thank everyone present “for the service you carry out in society. A difficult service; a service for the common good and for the common peace. A service that is dangerous, even to your life. A service which, as we asked St Michael Archangel, demands an upright mind, a strong will, honest affections and calmness. Thank you so much for this service. May the Lord bless you all”.