By Fr. Stefano Martoglio,
Councillor for Mediterranean Salesian Region
“In this context – I wrote – the heroism of the people and of the confrères is that of remaining and of keeping a ‘normality’, which is the most difficult thing in a state of war. Our house is in a relatively secure quarter, at least for the time being, but in previous times it also mourned its victims”.
In these years the war continued, and in Aleppo it actually grew worse. Aleppo has become the epicentre of the war. All of us know this, but the information we receive is not always complete.
I would like to entrust each one of us with two tasks: prayer, first of all and always! Prayer is in the heart of God and allows us not to forget when we lift our eyes to God. Prayer is the solace of our closeness with those who live and work, confrères, Salesian Family, all the people of all religions. Why is prayer so important? So that we do not forget and do not get used to what is happening! Let us therefore pray for peace, not only in Aleppo, but also all over Syria. Let us invoke peace and dialogue among the persons who today fight each other: let us invoke from God, in Heaven, and here on earth among those responsible of the opposed sides, so that they be moved with compassion towards the sufferings of a population that has already suffered so much.
The second task I entrust to each one of us is to be informed – with care, with documents, without limiting ourselves to the easy and too often oriented pieces of news that are spread – and then to recount, to bear witness to this reality among our people, our families, the Salesian Family. Not to speak of this, not to share it, is as if this reality did not exist… Or rather, it is getting used to this too! May the Lord drive us away from this terrible possibility.
