05 April 2015

Remembering the 47th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's Last Public Words


"We ask for peace and freedom for the many men and women subject to old and new forms of enslavement on the part of criminal individuals and groups. Peace and liberty for the victims of drug dealers, who are often allied with the powers who ought to defend peace and harmony in the human family. And we ask peace for this world subjected to arms dealers.

May the marginalized, the imprisoned, the poor and the migrants who are so often rejected, maltreated and discarded, the sick and the suffering, children, especially those who are victims of violence; all who today are in mourning, and all men and women of goodwill, hear the consoling voice of the Lord Jesus: "Peace to you! Fear not, for I am risen and I shall always be with you."

Francis I, Urbi et Orbi, 2015


“The tyrant dies and his rule is over;  the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

Søren Kierkegaard


Martin Luther King gave this speech on 3 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
 



On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.


"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and abuse those whom God has sent as messengers to you.

How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings. But you would not let me.

As you willed, your house is now yours— but is made desolate
.’”