“Let’s defend Catania from our carelessness, starting to dispose of garbage only after having separated it: it will be a way to respect the spaces we share; it will be the way to demonstrate the pride of taking care of our city”. The metropolitan archbishop of Catania, Monsignor Luigi Renna, launches an appeal to all citizens so that in the face of the waste emergency, a choral commitment is triggered between institutions, families, young people, faithful of all confessions so that the city is not disfigured by dirt and wounded by health emergencies”.
Unsorted waste will no longer be collected
All of us – the archbishop writes in his message – have learned of the emergency which risks changing something in our lives in these days of great heat: the municipality, to deal with the problem of landfills insufficient for regional needs, has issued a severe ordinance , but necessary, with which he announces that undifferentiated waste will no longer be collected. Anyone who, with little sense of responsibility, collects non-compliantly, puts rubbish of all kinds in the same bag and abandons it on the street corner, risks a severe complaint. But even if he goes unpunished, we must not forget that he violates our city, demonstrates disregard for hygiene which is a guarantee of health for everyone, gives a negative image to those tourists who give bread to the many people of Catania who work in restaurants, bars, shops , b&b, those who are the first to have to ensure a change in the order and cleanliness of our city”.
Separating waste is a gesture of love for Catania
“I combine my concerns – continues Monsignor Renna – with those of the mayor and all the people who want a presentable Catania, with the voice of those who come to visit it and make the tourist economy ‘walk’, to say: it’s time to be more responsible. In about 50 days we will celebrate the feast of Saint Agatha: we want to prepare for August 17th by filling the city, in every corner, with waste that can no longer be collected if thrown in an undifferentiated way? Citizens, long live Saint Agatha and not love the city that Saint Agatha loves and teaches us to love?”.
“The administration is making great efforts”
This act of care towards the city, according to the archbishop, starts with small things. “The administration – he continues – is making great efforts to resolve an emergency issue that we hope will see a definitive regional solution. But we defend Catania from our carelessness, starting to dispose of garbage only after having ‘differentiated’ it: it will be a way to respect the spaces we share. It will be the way to demonstrate the pride of taking care of our city. I appeal above all to mothers, those who know how to teach their children how to live, how to relate, how to run a house. I appeal to the youngest, who learn to respect the environment at school. Our Muslim brothers will also be exhorted by the imam of the Misericordia mosque, Dr. Keiht Abdelhafid, to this sense of responsibility: yesterday we spoke about it in a meeting at the inauguration of a Salesian inclusion center for the disabled”. Finally, a wish: “May the fifty or so days that separate us from the feast of Saint Agatha – writes Monsignor Renna – be lived in responsibility, in a race to make his and our city more beautiful”.
