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«Thanks to the suffering of those who preceded us we have come from decades of beauty of peace», this is how Bishop Antonio Napolioni wanted to underline during the Mass presided over on the morning of April 25th at the Cremona Cemetery.
On the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the Liberation, a detailed celebratory program was prepared by the Municipality of Cremona, in collaboration with the Liberation Constitution Committee (National Association of Italian Partisans, National Association of Christian Partisans of Cremona, National Association of Acqui Division – Cremona Section) , which opened with the Mass presided over by the bishop of Cremona at the Chapel of the Fallen for Freedom, in the presence of the civil and military authorities and representatives of the fighting, arms and partisan associations.
In his homily, Msgr. Napolioni wanted to draw attention to a very current danger in the context of today’s conflicts: «We are afraid of losing peace and we are tempted to delude ourselves that we can still obtain it only with violence: the Word gives us a bath of humility, because we have experienced the power of God.” «Last night – continued the bishop during his reflection – I had the opportunity to listen again to the words of violence that made that twenty years a harbinger of drama, humiliation, factionalism and which sowed death and resentment. How necessary it is not to exploit God and never use religions as a weapon of division.” Finally, Msgr. Napolioni wanted to close with an invitation addressed to everyone: «True liberation is not complete, because it is personal and communal, a work to which we are all called, believers and non-believers».
At the end of the Mass, accompanied by the trumpeter of the “Città di Cremona” band, the procession, preceded by the banners of the Municipality and Province of Cremona, paraded inside the cemetery to pay homage to those who gave their lives for the defense of freedom, with a stop and laying of laurel wreaths and flowers at the Chapel of the Civil War, at the Chapel of the Brothers of God, at the commemorative monuments of the soldiers killed in Kefalonia and Corfu, of the Fallen for the Resistance, at the Altare della Patria and on the tomb of Mario Coppetti.
Matteo Lodigiani
Source:
TeleRadio Cremona Cittanova
