In a country that argues on everything, from the economy to migrants, from international alliances to the color of the bathing cabins, the unthinkable happens: a unanimous vote. The Constitutional Affairs Commission has not even approved an abstention, the bill that reports on 4 October, the feast of San Francesco, among the national holidays (now the vote in the Chamber and the Senate is expected, which should not reserve surprises). A perfect concertation, almost an anomaly in our fragmented and clear parliament. The miracle, comes to say, did the poor of Assisi once again.
It could not be otherwise. Francesco belongs to everyone, believers and non -believers, left and right, conservatives and progressives. Its evangelical radicality, capable of speaking to the last and of enhancing the universal fraternity, goes beyond the enclosures of politics and religion. It is no coincidence that already in 2005 his memory was associated with a “day of peace”, a sign of a charisma that does not end in the pie devotions.
It would be enough to remember an emblematic episode: the visit to the sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, in 1219, in the middle of the fifth crusade. A barefoot Franciscan who enters the Muslim head tent not to preach crusades, but to talk about peace and mutual recognition. A gesture that sounds more than ever as ever as an interreligious dialogue lesson and universal opening.
The feast of October 4, therefore, is not just a liturgical anniversary. It is a civil flag. It is the idea that in the figure of the saint we can mirror values that combine rather than dividing: peace, brotherhood, custody of creation. Everything in Italy, too often, remains confined to Sunday rhetoric and never becomes political practice.
That the room has found unanimity on this point is not a little. It is a sign of rare harmony, almost unpublished. Francesco, the saint who stood out of everything, still manages to recompose what politics divides. Perhaps this is precisely the miracle we needed: remembering that a country can find yourself united around essential values, without needing to scream or clash. And it’s not a little.
