The basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua it was packed. In the front rows, next to the families of Valerio Daprà, Davide Bernadello and Marco Piffari, the three carabinieri killed in the explosion of the farmhouse in Castel d’Azzanosat the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarellathe Prime Minister Giorgia Melonithe presidents of the Senate and the Chamber Ignazio La Russa And Lorenzo Fontanaand the Minister of Defense Guido Crosettotogether with a large part of the Government and the top brass of the Army. Outside, in the churchyard, the guards of honour of Carabinieri, Army, Bersaglieri, Lagunari and Navy awaited the arrival of the coffins, welcomed by a long applause of Valley Meadowfull of moved citizens.
The entrance of the coffins and the pain of a country
Just before 4pm, the three coffins were wrapped in the tricolor they entered the basilica, accompanied by military honours. The colleagues who carried them had trembling hands, some stumbled with emotion. People cried and prayed in silence, held in a collective embrace. From President Mattarella to Prime Minister Meloni, who exchanged a few words with the families of the victims, no one was able to contain their emotion. More than two thousand people had already paid homage to the three soldiers at the funeral home set up the previous evening. Among them, ordinary citizens, colleagues, former Tuscania carabinieri. Vittorio Tommasi and Giuseppe Totawho they had shared missions with Valerio Daprà in Lebanon, Somalia and Iraq, they couldn’t hold back their tears: «We were shoulder to shoulder at Check Point Pasta in ’93 – Tommasi recalled – I lost friends then, and I lost another on Monday night».
«Do not let your heart be troubled»
In the heart of the ritual, the homily of the Military Ordinary for Italy, Archbishop Gian Franco Sababroke the silence with words of faith and consolation: «To you, dear family members of Marco, Valerio and Davide, everyone’s embrace and unanimous prayer. We too, like the disciples at the Last Supper, experience the trauma of farewell. But the Lord continues to tell us: “Let not your heart be troubled”. He teaches us to contrast the intelligence of evil with the intelligence of love.” The bishop recalled how Christ’s victory does not lie in strength, but in service: «Jesus shows that the glory of God is the ability to strip and humble oneself so that others can live. Our brothers Marco, Valerio and Davide followed this path: they served their country, that is, their neighbour, guaranteeing justice and order, to the point of giving their lives.”
Love as a response to violence
Monsignor Marcianò warned against the drift of a freedom “unmoored from any reference”, which makes society “polycentric, incapable of finding a centre”. We need, he said, “to return to the inner home to understand the meaning of one’s actions” and recover meekness, “a virtue that avoids transforming human coexistence into an immense slaughterhouse”. Then, the brightest image of the homily: «We want to think that in that tragic moment for Mark, Valerio and David the words of Jesus came to life: “I will come again and take you with me, so that where I am you may be also”. In my Father’s house – he concluded – there are many places: Jesus prepares a place for us, so that death never has the last word”.
Greetings from the nation
At the end of the celebration, the guard of honor accompanied the coffins out of the basilica. An interminable applause rose from the crowd, while the tricolor flags at half mast they flew over buildings throughout Italy. On the square, the Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani he said: «We will honor the memory of these heroes, an example of love for the country». And in the echo of those words, the bishop’s voice remained suspended in the air of Padua: an appeal, a warning, a prayer – that Italy knows how to respond to the intelligence of evil with the intelligence of love.
Here is the full text of Archbishop Gian Franco Saba’s homily
HOMILY STATE FUNERAL OF THE CARABINIERI – PADUA 2025
Authorities present:
President of the Republic
President of the Senate
President of the Chamber
President of the Council of Ministers
Minister of Defense
President of the Region
Chief of Defense Staff
General Commander of the Carabinieri
Mayor
Prefect
Other government, civil and military authorities.
Most Reverend Excellencies, Mons. Claudio and Mons. Domenico,
Most Reverend Father Abbot of Santa Giustina,
To you, dear family members of Marco, Valerio and Davideeveryone’s embrace and unanimous prayer.
And to all those who were painfully involved and wounded in the tragic event, from this house of prayer a greeting full of affection, closeness and trust.
The drama of pain
The evangelist John underlines that, while Jesus celebrates Easter, he presents us with one of the hardest and most painful moments experienced by his disciples: the farewell speech.
Hard, painful and humanly incomprehensible is the dramatic event that caused the death of Marco, Valerio and Davideand the injury of many operators on duty.
We too, in the Eucharist – Mystery of Easter – seek light of consolation, faith and hope.
From the table of the Word and the Eucharist, the Risen Lord continues to tell us: «Do not let your heart be troubled». He teaches us to experience the trauma of farewell.
The Gospel passage takes us back to the house of the Last Supper, where Jesus also experiences the sadness of betrayal and death. Everyone is sad and perceives that something terrible would happen: the separation marked by violence and dark choices.
Jesus is in the space of love, relationships, mutual support. In that house he had broken bread and washed feet, performing the nuptial gesture of the meeting between God and man.
In that same place He reveals that God descends into the abyss of death to redeem it with love.
Jesus experiences the abyss of evil and iniquity; taste the bitter morsel of the ancient serpent that pitted the creature against God and the creatures against each other. It is the mystery of the iniquity that Jesus manifests to his followers:
“He who eats my bread has raised his heel against me”.
Jesus does not hide the excruciating pain: it is the lament of a man wounded by his fellow man, by a friend in whom he trusted. Thus he redeems the drama of the man who, from being a friend, becomes his own brother’s attacker.
The gesture of “raising the heel” is the threatening act of someone who intends to trample. It expresses the violent impulse of someone who stimulates his horse with his heel to make it trample on his fellow horse. Jesus saw firsthand what it means to violently break human conviviality.
O Lordin this hour, give the light of consolation to those who have lost their dearest loved ones. You know that in this night of darkness misunderstanding, pain, the temptation to be refractory to goodness, to goodness, to meekness collide: it is the human darkness of the disciple of all times.
It also teaches us to contrast «to the intelligence of evil, the intelligence of love».
Our world is increasingly broken in what is most profoundly human: the capacity for relationship, for union, for belonging, for commitment to the common good.
«Do not let your heart be troubled»
The profound disturbance that Jesus reads in the hearts of the disciples is the fear of abandonment.
He feels this anguish strongly and explains it with a reassurance that consoles us too, in particular the family members of Marco, Valerio and Davide:
«Do not let your heart be troubled, I go to prepare a place for you».
Jesus announced to his disciples – and today to us too – that the separation will only be temporary, that pain will be transformed into joy and death into life.
He knows that the tear is a lacerating pain, and for this reason he enters into the turmoil of the human heart.
Saint Augustine writes:
«There was something to be upset about, as if it were their fate to be separated from him. But hearing it said: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions” (…) they recover from their confusion, safe and confident that beyond the dangers of the trial they will remain with God, with Christ.”
Pope Leo recalled that: «The Risen One leads us home, where we are expected, loved and saved».
Jesus consoles and instills hope, like a Father with a maternal heart:
«Have faith in me too. In my Father’s house there are many mansions. I’m going to prepare a place for you”.
We want to think that in that tragic moment, however Marco, Valerio and Davidethe words of Jesus came alive:
“I will come again and take you with me, so that where I am you may be too”.
The Lord returns every time any of us are on our way to leave this world.
The glory of love
In his farewell speech, Jesus points to love and service as the true victory, the true glory.
Serving our brothers, protecting the common good, means participating in the values of the Kingdom.
“If anyone wants to serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there my servant will also be”.
In the Paschal Mystery of Christ, the Glory of the Cross and the Glory of Love meet.
Jesus speaks of himself as a grain of wheat that has fallen to the ground, destined to die to bear fruit.
His glory is to give his life, to lose himself for love.
The glory of God is the ability to undress and humble oneself so that the other can live again. It is a glory that overcomes the logic of the “prince of this world”, based on self-affirmation, violence and success at the expense of others.
Jesus shows that victory over the world is not achieved in detachment, but in a radical love for it.
It is the same victory of those who serve their homeland and others, guaranteeing justice, the common good and the stability of institutions.
Meekness as strength
Today we are witnessing an immeasurable growth in the sense of freedom unmoored from any reference.
We don’t live in a pluralistic society so much as polycentricwhich struggles to find its center.
We need to return to our inner home, recover the ability to understand the meaning of our actions.
Conversion is the path to social reconciliation, which requires inner balance and an education in the virtue of meeknessso as not to transform human coexistence into an “immense slaughterhouse” (Hegel).
Reaching the summit of love on the cross, Jesus “proclaims that life reaches its centre, its meaning and its fullness when it is given”.
God is Father and, in Jesus, serves man.
Jesus testifies that Serving belongs to God.
Our brothers Marco, Valerio and Davide they followed the path of service for the common good.
In their encounter with Christ they will have reflected themselves in Him, seeing that the beautiful face of humanity lies in serving others and promoting the good that edifies.
The house of the Cenacle was full of wounds and death; but from that place Jesus radiates the light of love, ignites hope and opens a new horizon:
«In my Father’s house there are many places… when I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too».
