Gemma forgave

Forty-nine years ago, it was in May, those of Lotta Continua killed Commissioner Luigi Calabresi.
In April 2021, one of the killers was caught in France. In the same days, Gemma Capra, the widow, was interviewed by her son Mario, in view of her anniversary. An intense and profound dialogue between two people brutally wounded by the senseless violence of the so-called years of lead.
The wife and child of a victim, killed in the back, in the street, one day in May.
Gemma Calabresi did not cultivate hatred and resentment. She taught her children about the beauty of life. You forgave the killers. Her faith saved her.

And today, almost half a century later, you can utter words of peace and consolation, of hope and life. "I immediately chose - he confides in Mario and all of us - to let you live not in rancor and hatred, but I did everything possible to give you the joy of living and to still believe in humanity, in man and in people , in spite of everything".
So, at the news of the arrest of one of those who took Luigi from her - "Gigi" - and of other terrorists of that ferocious time, she commented: "I don't want to deceive myself, but I think it would be the right time to give back some of truth.

It would be important that at this point in their lives they finally found some courage to give us those missing pieces to the puzzle. I have made my way and I have forgiven them and I am at peace. Now it would be their turn. '
Forgiveness is difficult. When they snatch the love of life from you and you are only 25, and have two young children and a third on the way. And it is a gesture of pure hatred: useless, senseless, stupid. Not all relatives of victims have forgiven.

Forgiveness is serious business. To be handled with care. Intimate, fragile, heavy to carry.
Gemma Calabresi has forgiven. And today you can say: "Mine is a journey of faith". And she, to the question of her son: do you think you have arrived where you wanted? She replies like this: «I think so. I still have some difficult moments. But I wanted to get to pray for them and I can do it. Every day in my prayers, I pray that they have peace in their hearts. " Concluding her: «This thing gives me peace, gives me serenity, it also gives me joy and I want to say that forgiveness is not a weakness. I want to tell you that forgiveness is a strength, it makes you fly high ». Gemma Calabresi, from the top of a mountain of pain, confides to her son that «my life has been beautiful anyway».

Renzo Agasso
NP June / July 2021