It is when those balloons rise high into the sky, when the white wooden coffin is placed in the hearse for the last farewell that the pain becomes palpable. It is in that moment that what seems impossible suddenly becomes real: that is the moment in which Christopher Thomas’ friends burst into tears showing all their fragility and that humanity that is difficult to find in the cruel gesture that took that life away. A fragility that is also told in the song they chose for Thomas: “Rondini al guinzaglio” by Ultimo.
It is to them that grandmother Olga, who has always held her Christopher’s hand, as Mayor Simone Palozzo recalled, recalling his human bond with that family which began when Christopher was only three years old, who addresses herself by caressing the coffin of that grandson who has raised and loved like a son: “I ask you for a particular grace, don’t forget him”.
Words that accompany the letter that she also wrote and that was read at the end of the function celebrated by Archbishop Tommaso Valentinetti with, besides the parish priest of Rosciano, also Don Antonio Coluccia, the priest symbol of the fight against drug dealing and crime who arrived from Rome to bring his message to young people.
Receive IlPescara news on Whatsapp
“You have been the same since the beginning. I welcomed you in my arms before you opened your eyes to the world. The same world that betrayed you,” wrote grandmother Olga, remembering the tenderness of that child with whom she invented stories in bed and those gestures of love that he reserved for her when he left her notes around the house on Valentine’s Day. “You would have been a great man and I would have been proud of you. I want young people to understand the importance of family, a safe place. Feel free to be yourselves. Only in this way will true friends remain close to you. I ask grandparents, parents, uncles to always hold their children close. Hug each other and always remember to be there for each other.”
Monsignor Valentinetti spoke of a difficult funeral to celebrate and above all of “responsibility”. A word that he pronounces almost ritually and every time he does so it sinks into the chest of the listener just like that blade which, in an absurd and totally irresponsible way, took away the life of Christoper, who was only 16 years old, on the evening of June 23 in Baden Powell Park. A responsibility that “certainly belongs to those who carried out the actions that he should not have carried out – continued the archbishop speaking of the two alleged murderers, two minors -, but this is the moment to reflect on an assumption of collective responsibility. If these events occur, if these kids become uncontrollable, there is a dimension of responsibility that we all must assume. A jolt of responsibility because these things are not justifiable, they are not understandable.”
“The presence of so many young people – he said again, speaking of the vigil held in front of the Baden Powell park – testifies that there can be a leap of humanity, a leap of truth, a leap that makes the weapons fall from the hands of the violent, that makes the leprosy that is gripping the youth”, that of the Gospel chosen for the homily when Christ touches the leper and heals him by performing an unthinkable gesture because “the leper could not be touched. He was impure. How many times have we thought that those who experience hardship are impure and we should stay away from them – warned Valentinetti -. Maybe we should have the courage to go back down the mountain and touch it with our hands with our commitment.” Hence the appeal to stop “the merchants of death”, the drug dealers. In short, everyone’s commitment “to ensure that Christopher’s tormented wounds heal”, concluded the monsignor by addressing “the most heartfelt prayer” to grandmother Olga, “for the education she tried to give to this son” .
Don Antonio Coluccia also spoke from the pulpit. “May Christopher be a light on our path. We hope that this seed that fell to the ground can bear fruit especially for you guys because life is the greatest gift: it has no replacement prices – he said, addressing the 16-year-old’s friends. Who killed these kids? – he said in his speech – we are all responsible for it. Distinguish friends from snack buddies, your life is not up for auction. I’ve seen lots of zombies in the drug dealers. I hope that Pescara is a city not only that is moved today, but that moves to intercept the discomfort of these young people. Violence is fascinating, but it is horror.”
In that silent church where the authorities are present, from the prefect Flavio Ferdani to the police commissioner Carlo Solimene, passing through the president of the Region Marco Marsilio, the mayors including those of Pescara and San Giovanni Teatino and the highest representatives of the police forces as well as councilors municipal officials and deputies such as Guerino Testa and Luciano D’Alfonso, and where it is difficult for everyone to fit in, the light filters through the window above the altar and for a moment illuminates the face of a baby of a few months in his father’s arms. The little one cannot know where he is and smiles. It is the smile of a new life that tears away from those around him, the smile that for a moment erases the horror and fills the heart: in that smile there is that future that we must be able to give to our children, as they all remembered from the pulpit, touching their hardships firsthand, touching that great sensitivity that they try to hide by holding back those tears until the moment of farewell, the real one, the one that makes what doesn’t seem real become real. And then the tears flow as Thomas’s friends embrace each other to support a burden that seems too great to carry at that age and that everyone asks becomes not a force of anger, but a push of authentic humanity because these “Swallows without a leash ” find a nest where they can find support and comfort, and the responsibility of building it, this is the message from the homily, belongs to each of us.
Copyright 2024 Citynews
