Alito and Arrieta: Justice in the Vatican Spotlight
Every weekend of the Jubilee Year of Justice is dedicated to a group. Some of those recognized are Catechists, Missionaries, Migrants and Consecrated Life Sisters and Brothers. Last week was the Jubilee of Justice. It was special because it was the first time in Jubilee history that Justice was given as a weekend theme, and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, of the U.S. Supreme Court, was the first Supreme Court Justice to deliver an address at the Vatican.
There were between fifteen and twenty thousand people, in Saint Peter’s Square as part of this Jubilee weekend. (Usual capacity is 80,000.) Listening to chatter from people attending before hand indicated that they expected some quality time at the Vatican. For the Vatican, quality time often means standing around Saint Peter’s Square for the Angelus on Sunday. Judging from the official schedule I am right. There was an official program though and it was this:
Program on Saturday, 20 September 2025:
8:00 am - Access to St. Peter’s Square
9:00 am – 10:30 am - Sacrament of Reconciliation (opportunity for confession)
~10:30 am - Formal welcome by Archbishop Rino Fisichella
10:45 am - Lecture by Archbishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta on “Iustitia Imago Dei: the Operator of Justice as an Instrument of Hope”
12:00 noon - Audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm - Pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica
Justice Alito doesn’t appear on this official schedule but his talk received some limited coverage by Catholic news agencies here. In the Vatican press releases it was mentioned that this was the first time in Jubilee History there was a day devoted entirely to “justice operators”. An online search will give you some of that limited coverage by the CNA and EWTN. The television coverage gave some of the actual speech given by Justice Alito. It spoke of justice and mercy, nothing we have not heard before. I was fascinated by how he pontificated in giving his speech. It was as if he was giving a homily at Mass last Sunday. There was nothing warm or pastoral, just a kind of show to it all.
Probably of the most benefit to “Operators of Justice” from this weekend is the lecture by Archbishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta entitled “Iustitia Imago Dei: the Operator of Justice as an Instrument of Hope.” Archbishop Arrieta is the greatest legal mind we have in our Church today. He authored the second edition of the “Code of Canon Law Annotated.” It is the best source of Canon Law available today. It is only available from Midwest Theological Publications.
The Vatican has not made Archbishop Arrieta’s Lecture available yet but should soon. Archbishop Arrieta had four themes in his lecture:
1. The justice of God as the foundational standard: human justice must participate in this divine order;
Human justice must avoid falling into mere formalism, i.e. applying laws rigidly without regard to the dignity and circumstances of persons.
The dignity of the human person should always be respected; each concrete case must be judged with truth and fairness.
The concept of justice as imago Dei (image of God): following St. Augustine, justice is the participation in the Truth and the reconciling of the order that God originally willed.
When this lecture becomes available, it will be must reading, not for just Catholic Justice seekers, but, as the Vatican says, all Justice Operators.