They brought to the streets of Rome, between shamans of distracted tourists and in the rain, signs with the colors of the Palestinian flag and the writing: “For a disarmament and disarming”. Others showed the artist’s designs Gianluca Costantini of the series “Christ Diaed in Gaza”, where the Jesus in the arms of the Madonna and a skeletal child. They have gone through several symbolic places in Rome, reciting poems by Palestinian authors and peace prayers. They prayed in the church of San’Andrea at the Quirinale and finally gathered and greeted in the church of the Caravita, where they sang the Magnificat before the blessing given by Gaetano Castello, auxiliary bishop of Naples.
There were a hundred priests and religious from different Italian regions and various countries that met on the afternoon of September 22 for a moment of prayer and public testimony in favor of justice and peace in Palestine. Reaffirming the condemnation of the violence of 7 October, they repeated the words of Pope Leo “there is no future based on violence, on forced exile, on revenge” and, as they write in a note, “they prayed to God because the crimes against the Palestinian population and every massacre of innocent people in the world stop. Furthermore, they denounced the massacre of the Palestinian civilian population and the destruction of the territory of the Gaza Striscia. A vast majority of international bodies and non -governmental organizations, qualifies itself as a crime of genocide “.
They did not win flags, but some of them wore the Kefiah (the traditional Arabs headdress) on the habit or on the Clergyman. Among these father Alex Zanotelli. “That of today”, he told us Father Zanotelli, “is a nice sign, because we have seen religious and priests take to the streets in a very difficult moment in human history. Not only in Gaza, everything has now jumped, starting with international law. This West that Meloni proclaims Christian, by now of Cristiano he has nothing more. This inability to react by the West is terrible. Fascism because they really did not know what happened in the extermination camps, today we know everything and nobody does anything. “
Don Massimo NevolaJesuit, a long experience of travel to Israel and West Bank, underlines that “the Israeli people also at the moment is the victim of a policy that inevitable will not bring peace and tranquility, a policy will condemn apolitical that will condemn them the Israelis to be hated, rejected and victims of continuous attacks. When there is no justice, there is no peace, Mercy cannot be assumed peace “.
Don rita marescaparish priest in Piano di Sorrento, among the main animators of “priests against genocide”, appreciates the adhesion of priests and religious who now “will return home with a vision that will infect their parishes, confreres and their communities. This will bring moments of prayer and political formation, moments of commitment and spirituality, because spirituality is not something disconnected”.
In the photo, Father Alex Zanotelli
