Photo credit: Quarrie Photography / Jeff Walsh / Cass Hodge.
By Assunta Lupo and Marco Corona
Laudato Si’ Circle member, Palmero (Sicily, Italy); Laudato Si’ Circle member Badesi (Sassari, Italy)
We Laudato Si’ Animators, men and women of all ages and different territorial, social and cultural backgrounds, have adhered to Pope Francis’ invitation to care for our common home.
Assunta Lupo
Today, faced with the terrible fires that are devastating our regions, we cannot remain silent. Fire is not only that benevolent brother so called by Saint Francis of Assisi. It is also used by ignorant minds and criminal hands, and it has become an enemy that destroys nature, lives, and the economy.
We think, as Blessed Father Puglisi said, that each of us can do something to improve the world, the relationships between people, create relationships of solidarity, help, resources, autonomy.
Our common home is more and more in danger and, in this strange European summer, the pain and the cry of the Earth is rising high from Sicily, Sardinia, Abruzzo, (Italy) and too many other parts of the world.
No, we do not believe that it is ethical to start a fire, with the desire to find sources of income in an illicit way without taking into account what will happen, without respect for creation.
Marco Corona
We therefore ask that the competent authorities use all methods of prevention and work to restore those places that have been damaged, and that they join Laudato Si’ Movement and our hundreds of partner organizations in spreading at all levels the culture of the common good.
We of the Laudato Si’ Circles throughout Italy will do our part in this grand educational effort, starting from this prayer we invite all of you to join us today, 6 August, feast of the Transfiguration and the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Lord Jesus,
On the Mount of Transfiguration some men chosen by you saw a light of great intensity and beauty, and on that high mountain, enveloped in a mysterious cloud, they heard the voice of the Father who alone begs us to listen to you.
We ask you to forgive this humanity of ours, which created a terrible bomb, which 76 years ago caused first a light never seen before, almost as intense as that of the sun, and then a deflagration so powerful that in a moment it ended thousands of lives, with its wind of fire.
Lord Jesus we ask for mercy, because the fire that you give us in your transfiguration, we use it to create death and destruction.
We are in times of fires, even in these days, lit by human hands, and not to warm our neighbors, but to make scorched Earth around them transfiguring with death your wonderful creation, our common home.
Lord Jesus, we beseech Thee, let Thy mercy rain down upon us and extinguish that evil fire which still undermines us and wants to devastate the sprouts of good in the garden of our hearts which Thou hast created for Thee alone. Amen.
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