Lamezia Terme – The “XXVIII day of children victims” (GBV) of violence promoted by the Meter association, also active in the Lamezia area, was celebrated with a Holy Mass, presided over by the rector Don Francesco Benvenuto, in the diocesan sanctuary of San Giovanni Paolo II. The Day of Children Victims of Violence, Exploitation and Indifference, against pedophilia, was born in 1996, at the request of the families and groups of children of the Madonna del Carmine parish of Avola, in the province of Syracuse, and of the Association Meter, following the attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl, the stories of some episodes of abuse and the suicide of a 14-year-old boy. On that occasion it was called Cut Flower Day (1995), but the following year it assumed its current name. Every year Meter members and volunteers go to St. Peter’s Square to welcome the greetings and encouragement of the Holy Father. Pope Francis has never failed to give his “special message” to the GBV, as did his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. And this year too, at the end of the Regina Coeli, he greeted and encouraged the members of the association to move forward: “I welcome it with pleasure – said the Pontiff – the Meter Association, committed to combating every form of abuse of minors. Thank you, thank you for your commitment! And continue your important activity with courage.”
“The experience of GBV – highlighted by Meter – is characterized by the stories of many victims who have found hope, acceptance, care and loving accompaniment in the painful path of liberation from new forms of slavery, such as pedophilia and child pornography. Everything was done to ensure that these splendid wounded humanity did not experience loneliness and abandonment, despite the awareness that this is always little compared to what still needs to be accomplished: many children must be freed. Too many are reduced to sexual slavery and manipulated by clear ideologies that reduce human life to waste, to a commodity, to an object of pleasure. GBV has become a stimulus and source of inspiration for many other initiatives in Italy and abroad. The true and inevitable protagonists of this Day have always been children and in all these years generations have been raised who have learned to defend themselves with responsibility and awareness from attackers and predators of innocence”.
At the end of the well-attended celebration at the diocesan sanctuary, after greetings from president Annalisa Gioiello, the children present were given a t-shirt commemorating this day in the belief that, as Don Fortunato di Noto underlines, “abuse is a permanent trauma; it is an invisible wound with which we survive but often also visible due to the self-defenses that each person implements. Hence the need to understand them, to welcome them, to share them to allow those who have been wounded to come out and see the light of life again.”
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