The Pope at Fosse Ardeatine:
'A reminder of the abyss of evil'
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 3/28-3/29/11 issue of
Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to the Fosse Ardeatine - as the Pope himself defined it - to pay homage to the vitims of the horrible massacre which remains among the most indelibe of the numerous horros during World War II, did not find much coverage in the media. Perhaps this was also due to the urgent succession of tragic news on the international scene.
And yet Benedict XVI's visit to this shrine 'dear to all Italians' - in continuity with those by Paul VI and John Paul II, for the purpose of prayer and a 'renewal of memory' - has a special significance that is enduring.
Their successor has, in fact, taken yet another step in recomposing the memory of that conflict which contributed to plunge the 20th century into the abyss of evil. Just as Benedict XVI himself had said ne year after his election as Pope, when reflecting on recent Popes.
One must consider, he said, that "on Peter's Chair, after a Polish Pope, the succesion passed on to a citizen of that land, Germany, whose Nazi regime asserted itself with great virulence, attacking its neighboring nations, including Poland in particular." He continued:
"Both these Popes, in their youth - a;though on opposite sides and in different situations - knew firsthand the barbarisms of the Second World War and the senseless violence of men against men, of peoples against other peoples".
In the presence of the Chief Rabbi of the oldest community in teh Western Diaspora, which was ferociously struck by racial persecution even at the Fosse Ardeatine, the Bishop of Rome - 'city consecrated by the blood of martyrs' - wished to meet and spend some time with the families of the victims, Catholics and Jews together, at this modern shrine not far from the catacombs of ancient Rome.
Once more, Psalms were heard, words that Jews and Christians have raised through the centuries to the one God. The God to whom, at the moment of death, two of the victims, like so many others in those days, called on, one to affirm his faith "in God and in Italy', the other, to ask the Father to protect the Jews 'from barbaric persecutions'.
Benedict XVI cited their words, recalling the 150th anniversary pf Italian unity this year, and repeating that in the Father of all, a different future is possible, in which no offense will be done to the holy name of God and to the human being he created in his image.