Of Luca Pernice
“In our country we breathe an air of superficiality and normalization”. This is the warning launched by Don Luigi Ciotti, founder of the Abele and Libera Group, who this morning took part in the eighth anniversary of the massacre, which took place in San Marco in Lamis in the Foggiano on 9 August 2017, in which the farmers Luigi and Aurelio Luciani were killed, innocent victims of mafia violence.
“Indifference is growing up and is enlarged, but we must have the strength to look beyond the fog of the present,” said Don Ciotti, underlining the need for a conscious presence and a constant commitment of civil society. THEThe co-president of Libera recognized the “huge forward steps” thanks to the commitment of law enforcement and judiciary, but he warned that they are not enough. “The last mafia always risks being the penultimate, because there is an imperative in the Code of the Mafia: that of regenerating himself,” he explained. To counteract this continuous criminal evolution, his appeal is clear: “It is up to us as citizens, movements, associations, regenerate ourselves. It is up to us to always be there and to take on our part of responsibility more and more”.
Don Ciotti defined indifference, selfishness and individualism as the “diseases of our time”, together with the tendency to delegate the responsibilities to others. “Sometimes”, he remarked, “we have to ask ourselves about our deliberateness, our delays. We cannot settle for the existing”.
“Justice and truth are not accessories of life, “he reiterated, highlighting how hunger for truth and justice is the only way to build a” we “capable of rebelling at normalization and overcoming obstacles to change. Addressing the widows of the Luciani brothers, he also highlighted that “proximity to the families of the victims is not only a moment of great emotion, but it must be a commitment that we all take on, so that it can really be a seed of hope and change”. The change, he added, “needs the contribution of each of us”, and the hope “needs our commitment and our responsibility”.
In his speech, remembering that “There is a widespread and worrying democratic fatigue” has mainly launched a reference to action and love, understood not only as a feeling but as a real civic commitment. “Prayer is the immersion in the love of God and is a hand aimed at tightening that of the brothers. Pope Francis remembered that in the Gospel, Jesus advises not to say so many words but to make gestures of love and hope in the name of the Lord. Our commitment is love. Loving is not established by those who love but by those who need to be loved”.
“This hunger for justice and truth must always accompany us,” Don Ciotti said, leaving those present a message of hope and an exhortation to a concrete and collective action.
