Hope & Justice Foundation completed, on September 7th, 2 years of existence and many achievements. The celebration took place with a Thanksgiving service and a cocktail reception at the foundation’s headquarters in Orlando, where the foundation’s directors, counselors, volunteers, partners and friends were present. On this occasion, I delivered my speech addressed to those present, which I now address to the entire community through this space. I also take this opportunity to publicly record my eternal gratitude to this important vehicle of communication for the great support it has given to the noble cause for which we have fought since its beginning. The speech follows:
Conscience is the greatest tribute given to human beings by God. It is something that identifies us as human. Nullifying our own conscience is the greatest proof of mediocrity, alienation and foolishness there is.
We are here today, celebrating life, freedom, courage and independence. Not by coincidence, but for God’s purposes, Hope & Justice completes two years of fights and victories. To fulfill this noble and challenging mission, which is to make Justice, Hope and Freedom prevail for all the wronged, hopeless and captives.
When we act in accordance with our conscience and allow it to be guided by God, we can witness magnificent and blessed fruits as a result of our work. Along this journey, we face the most diverse challenges, one of them is to make the truth prevail in everything we do, in the certainty of who is the author and consummator of this mission, I know that the truth will always prevail, because falsehood does not survive and neither leaves any legacy. It ends up losing in its own arrogance. This may even seem obvious and banal, but when we deal with the most diverse types of human beings, in this arduous mission, we deal with unimaginable situations.
When bad men get together, good men must get together too, otherwise they will fall one by one.
And to paraphrase the conservative philosopher Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
The fact here is that in order to fulfill this great mission, I needed to invite the good ones so that they truly embrace this cause, accepting the call of their own conscience and forming the army of the good ones. And they came, courageously accepted such a challenge. And by the grace of God, they keep coming. The reality is that each of us must take responsibility for our own lives, for the lives of our families, for our community, and for our Nation.
We must be vigilant, attentive and united, as there are many bad associations out there. Like so many criminal organizations. If each one of us is only concerned with our interests, this selfishness of ours will surely lead us to our ruin, and not just ours, but the ruin of all those who want to build a better society.
Another challenge I faced that I want to share with you today is that the purpose of inviting people to this war against these heinous crimes was and still is to awaken the courage these people inherently have within them and help them fight fear. No passion so effectively robs you of your powers of action and reasoning as fear. If there’s one terrible thing that fear does to people’s lives is paralysis. You don’t try things when you fear, you don’t express yourself, you don’t fail, you procrastinate, and so you never grow, you never advance, you never win. Fear is the most ignorant, the most unjust and cruel of counselors. The only thing fear doesn’t paralyze is time, your time will undoubtedly pass. And so will the opportunities for growth, to work to promote the good and happiness for you, your family and your community. When fear strikes, act and do something meaningful or even something simple. The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When we lack courage, we are no longer free, we will be captive when choices and decisions become products of fear. What choices have we made? Do they reflect our free, responsible, and courageous selves? How will our hands be on the great day of accountability to the Lord? Empty?
We must constantly reflect on our faithfulness to our principles and purposes. To be virtuous is to be faithful to the purpose, to carry it out with determination, discipline and love. He truly loves the one who is free to give themselves to others. Love is not a feeling or emotion. Love is deeply related to giving. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13.
We are free as we develop self-knowledge and knowledge of the world around us. The free human being never acts with deceit, but always in good faith. It is vital that we remove from ourselves, in the way that seems safer and more licit to us, everything that exists in things that we deem to be bad, that is we believe we can prevent us from existing and from enjoying a rational life.
How valuable is freedom to you? But what is freedom without wisdom and virtue? We must fight for freedom to the best of our ability, and we must use that freedom responsibly.
True freedom does not consist in choosing between good and evil, but in being able to turn to good and renounce evil.
It is to fulfill this purpose that Hope & Justice Foundation exists; turn to the good and renounce the evil. Bringing hope, promoting justice and fighting for freedom. Serving the community, the Nation, always guided by Christian and Constitutional Principles, Law and Order.
The purpose of these words of mine as Founder and President of Hope & Justice Foundation is to present on this solemn and commemorative date the Principles, Values and Virtues that are the Foundations of our institution, in addition to exhorting all of you to a vital reflection on the responsibility of each one as a citizen and Christian in this great war that we are waging against the enemies of life, human dignity, justice, good and peace.
I praise God for this very valuable opportunity to humbly serve my brothers, the whole society and this great Nation. I praise God for the precious lives that have embraced this noble cause, and those to come. I pray to God to direct the victims who cry for help to us. And finally, I publicly record my eternal gratitude to everyone who supports our work.
