An assumption of collective responsibility in returning to take care of neglected young people. The Archbishop of Pescara-Penne, Monsignor Tommaso Valentinetti, firmly invoked it, presiding over the funeral rite of 16-year-old Thomas Christopher Luciani, killed with 25 stab wounds last Sunday, in a ravine behind the “Baden Powell” Park in the center of Pescara, for a small drug debt of 250 euros. The alleged murderers, who immediately after the murder went for a swim in the sea as if nothing had happened, are two of his age.
A tragedy that has left the communities of Pescara and Rosciano, a small inland town where Thomas Christopher lived with his grandmother since he was three and a half years old, shocked, united by the city mourning proclaimed respectively by the mayors Carlo Masci and Simone Palozzo. The small Pescara town itself, in a parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary packed to the rafters, hosted the funeral of the young man whose body entered kept in a white coffin. “You will always be a part of me. I will never forget your smile. I love you”, could be read on the T-shirt of the boy’s girlfriend. Tears and the floods of weeping from relatives and friends greeted the coffin of Crox – this is his nickname for everyone – in the church, greeted upon exiting with a long round of applause.
Hundreds of people took part in the ceremony, many of whom were forced to remain outside the church. To the tune of Ultimo’s song, “Swallows on the Leash”, red and white balloons were released into the air. Among those present at the funeral also Don Antonio Coluccia, the courageous priest of San Basilio of Rome who lives under guard. There were, among others, the president of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, the prefect of Pescara, Flavio Ferdani, the police commissioner Carlo Solimene, the mayor of Rosciano, Simone Palozzo. Crox’s friends wore T-shirts in memory of him.
“Who bears the responsibility for such a violent act,” Archbishop Valentinetti begins, “for such a premature death, not even 17 years old? You will surely say who committed the acts that they should not have committed. If these events happen, if the children become uncontrollable, I believe that there is a dimension of responsibility that we all, without distinction, must assume.” It is useless, for the prelate, to pass the buck: “We must not point the finger at each other,” he warns. Here is the comparison with what is narrated in the first reading, taken from the second book of Kings: “Zedekiah,” the Archbishop of Pescara-Penne recalls, “in the moment of danger abandoned the people, and here, very often, children are abandoned. It is not so, the assumption of responsibility is of all of us. On the part of the institutions, on the part of the school, on the part of the families, on the part of the Church, on the part of everyone. A jolt of responsibility, because these things are not justifiable, they are not understandable.”
But not all is lost: «The presence of so many children, so many young people, so many flowers – testifies the prelate – brought until yesterday to the place where this event took place, testify that there can be a leap of humanity, of truth, that makes the weapons fall from the hands of the violent, that makes the new “leprosy” that is gripping the youth, drugs, fall from the hands.” So a new reference to the Gospel page, in which the evangelist Matthew narrates the healing of a leper by Jesus, to launch a new appeal to the community: “A leper could not be touched, he was impure, and yet Jesus touches him – observes the archbishop –. But how many times have we thought that our brothers and sisters, who unfortunately experience hardship, are impure and therefore we stay away. And instead we should have the courage to go back down the street and touch this reality.” Then the appeal to the institutions to stamp out drug trafficking: “Stop the merchants of death”, thunders Valentinetti.
Finally, another prayer for Christopher, but also for his executioners: «So that the Lord – hopes Valentinetti – welcomes him into his arms and closes those wounds tormented by the stab wounds. Let us also pray for those who inflicted them, so that he may repent.” The last word of closeness to grandmother Olga, who raised her grandson like a mother and who, at the end of the funeral rite, asked the young people to “change this rotten world”. A touching moment, among many.
