At the annual Metropolitan Police Remembrance Service on 14th June, Cardinal Vincent paid tribute to the men and women of the Metropolitan Police ‘who strive courageously to serve our society, often without thought for their own safety’.
He particularly remembered ‘those whose commitment to justice led them to respond with selfless courage in the tragedies’ that had hit London in the previous year, and especially those who ‘lost their lives confronting evil, protecting the vulnerable, pursuing the criminal’.
The Cardinal spoke of this commitment to justice as a strength of police officers, just as compassion is a strength which Catholic priests display. ‘A partnership between justice and compassion is always needed,’ he said, noting especially the partnerships that exist between the Church and Police in the fight against human trafficking, knife crime, and in face of violent attacks.
Striving for justice and compassion, he explained, are virtues, the practice of which ‘takes us beyond every pragmatic calculation’, to a ‘wider horizon, to a yearning for something more’, to the source and origin which ‘since time began, men and women have called God’.
With a ‘full heart, the Cardinal prayerfully commended to God ‘those whose memory we honour today’ and assured all the men and women of the Metropolitan Police of his thankful prayers for their protection and their ‘virtue in the pursuit of justice’ and ‘service in our society’.
The full text of the Cardinal's address is available here.
Photo: Courtesy of Metropolitan Police
