by Luigi Renna*
Dear fellow citizens,
We have all learned of the emergency that risks changing something in our lives in these days of great heat: the Municipality, to deal with the problem of landfills insufficient for the regional needs, has issued a severe, but necessary, ordinance, with which it announces that “undifferentiated” waste will no longer be collected. Those who, with little sense of responsibility, carry out a “non-compliant” collection, putting all kinds of garbage in the same bag and abandoning it on the street corner, risk a severe complaint, but even if they remain unpunished, they must not forget that they “violate” our city, demonstrate disregard for hygiene that is a guarantee of health for all, give a negative image to those tourists who “give bread” to the many Catanese who work in restaurants, bars, shops, B & Bs, those who are the first to have to ensure a turning point in the order and cleanliness of our city. Courage! I join my concerns to those of the Mayor and all the people who want a presentable Catania, to the voice of those who come to visit it and make the tourist economy “walk”, to say: it is time to be more responsible.
Do we want to shout: Citizens, long live Sant’Agata and not love the city that Sant’Agata loves and teaches us to love?
In about 50 days we will celebrate the feast of Saint Agatha: do we want to prepare for August 17 by filling the city, in every corner, with waste that can no longer be collected if thrown in a pile indiscriminately? Do we want to shout: “Citizens, long live Saint Agatha” and not love the city that Saint Agatha loves and teaches us to love? Love begins with small things! The Administration 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 manage a home. I appeal to the youngest, who learn to respect the environment at school. Our Muslim brothers will also be urged by the imam of the Mosque of Mercy, Dr. Abdelhafid Keiht, to this sense of responsibility: yesterday we spoke about it in a meeting at the inauguration of a Salesian inclusion center for the disabled.
May the fifty or so days that separate us from the feast of Saint Agatha be lived in responsibility, in a race to make His and our City more beautiful.
*Metropolitan Archbishop of Catania
