Don Ciotti meets Gonzaga students in Palermo | “You are needed”
Libera President Don Luigi Ciotti meets with students at Gonzaga in Palermo and invites them to get involved
PALERMO – “The Mafia is fought together. Only together, in fact, can we grow a better society that contrasts, with the concrete commitment of every day, mafia crime.”
Starting with these words, Don Luigi Ciotti, on Feb. 14, in the auditorium of the Institute, met with the young people of the Gonzaga Campus.
The president of Libera is in Sicily to meet with young people from various schools ahead of the upcoming Day of Remembrance. Next March 21, in fact, the XXX Day of Remembrance and Commitment in memory of the innocent victims of the mafias will take place in Trapani; an event promoted by Libera and Avviso Pubblico.
“The changes we dream of need the commitment of each of us,” said Don Luigi Ciotti. ”We need you young people who, with your creativity give us new energy to move forward. There is a need, however, for a world of adults who know how to listen to you. I wish you much solitude because it is precisely in this that we discover our inner world, living our emotions in depth. Otherwise, it all becomes rushed and always connected. Solitude is relationship with life and not isolation. Our solitudes are moments of awareness and growth.”
“In all these years, a shared path has grown with Libera that we do together with many associations at the national and international level. Libera today can be found in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Memorial Day on March 21 was created to remember all the people who have been killed by the mafias. Let us remember that 80 percent of families still do not know the truth. Truth is a right and, without it, justice cannot be built. Ours must be a living memory nourished by the assumption of our responsibilities. Today, mafias are making new deals and alliances inside legal markets. Memory must translate into concrete social commitment that generates cultural change.”
“For 15 years, Libera has been accompanying, as well, juvenile justice youth who have committed crimes to whom it offers other opportunities for life,” continued Fr. Luigi Ciotti. ”We must educate ourselves to grasp the beautiful and positive things that are there without forgetting what we still need to continue to do. Young people, if they have desire and passion, are wonderful because they can bring so much new blood. Let us, therefore, commit ourselves to broadening the audience of active citizenship made up of real people. Without getting discouraged, we must always have the strength to keep putting ourselves out there.”
“We are happy to welcome a person who, for years, has been speaking with his life, full of concrete gestures and actions for our country,” said Fr. Vitangelo Denora, director general of Gonzaga Campus. ”The school is the privileged place that, by not remaining on the surface, can make deep awareness grow about what can be done in life. Our school wants to be there, to understand how we can improve the world around us.”
(Serena Termini – Gonzaga Campus of Palermo press release – Feb. 14, 2025)
Source and Image
- Gonzaga Campus Palermo