Martina, Sara, Ilaria, Aurora, Eleonora… It is now a painful procession of names and faces, young lives that have been broken too early. That of feminicides is becoming a tragedy to which, little by little, we are getting used to it, that it does not touch us much, which no longer produces jolts and indignation. Still, we cannot resign ourselves. We cannot throw the sponge and simply take refuge in the usual “What can we do?”. It is not fair, he is not human, he is not an attitude of hope so to surrender in the face of evil.
Perhaps, as a first step, we need to ask for the grace of tears. He talked about it many times Pope Francisevoking our ability to see the tragedies of the world and not remain indifferent. “Compunction is the antidote to the hardness of the heart so much reported by Jesus,” said the chrism mass of 28 March 2024. “The heart, in fact, without repentance and crying, stiffens: first it becomes habitual, then impaired for problems and indifferent to people, therefore cold and almost impassive”. Instead, “tears slowly dig the hardened hearts”.
Feelings of the genre must have experienced the archbishop of Naples, the Cardinal Domenico Battagliawhen, celebrating the funeral of Martina Carbonaro, the 14 -year -old killed in Afragola by his ex -boyfriend, he struggled in some moments to contain the emotion. I believe that this emotion, this connection with the heart as well as with the mind, inspired him deep, heard, real words.
It is worth – and I invite you to do it – read his homily during the funeral celebration. The purple has been able to whisper words of hope – not the easy and consoling one, but the one that “Walk inside our night, inside this silence made of unanswered questions”that “does not erase pain” but knows how to “keep it within a greater hope”, which “does not deny the cross but transfigures it” starting from the new gaze that “arises from the risen Christ”.
The cardinal then reflected for a long time on violence, which is the result of “A sick idea of love, still too widespread, too tolerated, too silent”. An idea that “confuses control with affection, love with possession”. It is – said Battaglia – of “Bitter fruit of an education that has failed”.
And on this, dear friends, we must seriously question ourselves: I also talk about it in dialogue with a reader (see page 3). We adults also have to have the courage of tears and, together, of self -criticism: not to “cry on us”, but to change course and try to build new horizons. For us and for our young people. To young people, Cardinal Battaglia launched an invitation: “You don’t stay alone! Trust those adults there are … ask for help “. Because you have to be able to express your emotions and develop them with the help of solid people of reference.
Adults, for their part, must accept the challenge of taking on a collective responsibility, which I transform “The memory of Martina in commitment”. Because, in the end, the question counts that the Archbishop addressed to those present: “What world are we building for these guys?”. For each of us, a honest examination of consciousness is inevitable, if we do not want to be complicit in evil.
