At my ageI am 82 years old, I hoped that there was greater awareness of the boys in their relationship with the female world.
I realize, however, that not only is there no longer what it was called in my time “cavalry”that is, courtesy and protection towards girls. But the saying is not worth either “A woman doesn’t even touch with a flower”.
Just see how many violence And femicides.
Italian
Dear Italoyour letter brings me to two reflections.
The first, more general, is that perhaps not even a time, when the things you remembered, concrete attitudes to women they corresponded to what was supported. Perhaps in no other situation, as towards the female gender, the distance between saying and doing has been so enormous. Both outside and inside the Catholic world.
The second, more relevant to this column, concerns the level of reflection on love that we have developed.
The world has changed, but we think that the idealized and simplified thought of love is still worth total feeling which fills the heart and brings lovers out of space and time. As if love was not a mutual approach processwhich requires commitment and respect for limits.
I’m yours, you are mine: They are deceptive phrases. We are not even masters of ourselves, we cannot arrogate the right to be of someone else.
Even in the most intimate union there is one respect distance. The words we use, the gestures we make, the choices we make (the use of money, the destination of time, the attendance of people, the relationships with families): Everything must have a measure and a limitwhich must be built together in the couple.
If we do not help the boys understand these things, the way to every outcome opens. Even to the most violent and destructive ones.
