Donald Trump will be the 45^th President of the United States of America. The new president will swear his oath of office on the Bible; a private ceremony will be heldin the White House Blue Room, followed by a public ceremony on 20 January, traditionally held before Midday, when the President’s term officially begins. The oath of office of the President of the United States of America is traditionally taken before the chief justice of the US Supreme Court and reads“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States”.

The president will take the oath on the Bible. Traditionally, this is not just a formal act but has a profound meaning. Trump is also a very wealthy man. In the Bible, Jesus considers wealth merely a tool and warns us that it often becomes evil because men use it as an instrument of power and domination, even as a means  for exterminating the poor. We can all see how, worldwide,there is a planned and conscious effort to exterminate the poor. We have invested huge sums of money in producing weapons, as a result of which millions of people are killed. Regarding wealth, it is our responsibility to do what we can to transform it into an instrument for liberating mankind.

This is the biblical meaning of the love of God. Not empty words, but actual facts and solid commitment to achieve economic solidarity, social policies and an inclusive – not exclusive – welfare system, the awareness that the United States is a great country belonging to a global world, where there is urgent need for the globalisation of solidarity, not of indifference.

Let us pray for the United States of America and its new president that he may fulfil the Word of God, on which, in a certain sense, the entire American people take the oath, and live up to the Constitution and history of that country.