Righteous anger is among the virtues. We often tell children – perhaps to make our lives easier – that getting angry is bad, that anger is among the vices. But then Jesus, who overturned the tables of the merchants in the temple, would be full of vice! Anger is actually a certain "ability," just like feeling or intelligence. Only the object to which we direct our anger makes this ability a virtue or a vice. When I am seized by anger at the sight of someone being harmed, and it gives me the strength to help them and free them, then this anger shows that I love the other person.
When someone gets angry, they should ask themselves if they are worthy of such anger, if they are, for example, worthy of helping the suffering. It is not so difficult to be swept away by righteous anger and then say, my conscience is clear. Anger itself does not exempt us from the duty to perform specific acts.
(Abbé Pierre /Henri Grouès, 1912–2007/, Testament)
