They died in their homes or on the street, in their beds or while playing. Twelve thousand names of children who have lost their lives from 7 October 2023 to today in Israel EA Gazawill be read during a long prayer marathon, starting from 3pm on Thursday 14 August, the eve of August, among the ruins of the church of Santa Maria Assunta di Casaglia in Monte Sole, in the province of Bologna, on the initiative of the Archbishop and President of the CEI, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, and the monks of the Small family of the Annunziata.
The appeal of Pope Leone XIV For peace, so that weapons tacked, conflicts stop and new initiatives are held since “true peace requires the courageous deposition of weapons, especially those that have the power to create a catastrophe”, with the invitation to pray for a world “where conflicts face not with weapons but with dialogue”.
The names of the victims (between zero and twelve) were taken by official lists. “The Israeli victims are 16, identified thanks to a text document provided by the government, with photos and stories. The Palestinian victims are about 12 thousand, contained in a list with age, names in Arabic and translitted. This was provided by the Ministry of Health of Gaza and reported by Washington Post in order of age, “he explained Paolo Barabino, superior of the small family of the Annunciation.
The choice of the place of reading and prayer is full of meaning. Between 29 September and 5 October 1944 Monte Sole, on the Bolognese Apennines, was the scene of one of the most atrocious massacres made by the Nazi troops in Italy: About 770 civilians, many of whom were children, were victims of a brutal raking. In the church of Casaglia the inhabitants sought refuge, but the German soldiers left him no way out. The parish priest, Don Ubaldo Marchionihe was killed with a burst of machine guns together with three elderly and in the nearby 197 people cemetery, including 52 children, they were massacred. The violence of the Nazi -fascists also overwhelmed the nearby fractions.
“The river of blood that has been running in Gaza for almost two years and in the Holy Land,” said Barabino, “she questions us more and more deeply Pushing us to a strong gesture of intercession, of branch prayer and confident to God to ask for the gift of peace and the end of all suffering. Each victim of every conflict and particularly children are never simply a number but a face, a name and a story ».
