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Dei vizi e delle virtù

The Scrovegni Chapel in Padua is home to one of the greatest masterpieces of Western art, where Giotto portrayed the path of human salvation through the stories of Jesus and Mary on the walls, and the Last Judgment on the counter-façade. In the lower tier Giotto painted the four cardinal and three theological virtues to the right of Christ the Judge, and the seven vices that represent the counterbalance of the virtues to his left. And it is precisely to these pairs of opposites:  injustice-justice, inconstancy-fortitude, anger-temperance, foolishness-prudence, infidelity-faith, jealousy-charity, despair-hope, that the latest conversation between Pope Francis and Father Marco Pozza is dedicated.

Virtues are the roads that lead to salvation, vices those that end in perdition: “Virtues make you strong, they push you forward, they help you to fight, to understand others, to be just, equitable. Vices, on the other hand, bring you down. Virtues are like vitamins: they make you grow, move forward. Vices are essentially parasitic”. Reflecting on these issues helps us “better understand the direction we must take, so that both vices and virtues enter our way of acting, thinking and feeling”. For this reason, each chapter is enriched by words from Pope Francis that explore the theme of dialogue, and a life story that Father Marco Pozza drew from his experience as chaplain in Padua prison. In everyday life vices and virtues always go forth intertwined and this book is a journey that helps us rethink the difficult and necessary task of discerning between good and evil.


Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. He graduated in Philosophy, was ordained archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, made cardinal in 2001, and elected Pope in 2013 with the name of Francis. Among his books with Marco Pozza, Padre Nostro (2017) and Ave Maria (2018). Marco Pozza, (1979) holds a doctorate in Theology and is the chaplain of Padua prison. He writes in newspapers and comments on the Gospel for Rai1 and for TV2000.

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