Lipa's shame

Publish date 17-06-2021

by Gianfranco Cattai


 

Pietro Bartolo, known as the doctor from Lampedusa, now a European parliamentarian, was in Lipa in Bosnia. His words echoed everywhere. «I was traumatized, I had never seen such an inhuman situation as in Lipa.
It was a punch in the stomach so hard that I withdrew and threw up, as well as crying. Europe is shipwrecked in the face of a situation in which fundamental human rights are systematically violated. We need to change migration strategy ”.
When we make our own the words of Pope Francis: «In today's world the feelings of belonging to the same humanity are weakening, while the dream of building justice and peace together seems a utopia of other times.
We see how comfortable, cold and globalized indifference dominates, the daughter of a profound disillusionment that lies behind the deception of an illusion: believing that we can be omnipotent and forget that we are all in the same boat ”(from the encyclical Fratelli tutti). Over the years this boat has been outraged, many other boats abandoned adrift.

Some bodies float, others reach the shore, many are at the bottom of the sea. Other "people" on the other hand are on their way "along the Balkan route". Long lines of elderly people, women and children, on foot, sometimes barefoot and injured, trying to escape the violence of the Croatian police, finding their death in the woods, from hunger and from the cold.
Is this the Gospel lesson? What have we done, beyond words, to prevent this? The great lesson of Pope Francis lies in calling us back to Christian witness.
We are consoled by the fact that Ipsia-Acli and Caritas Italiana are physically present in the area and in the field to help respond to emergencies and therefore we can count on them not to leave them alone. But that's not enough.
With the MEPs who went to Lipa we must commit ourselves to making Europe take decisions to tackle this situation of profound inhumanity. In particular, we ask Europe to pay the necessary attention to the human and social dimension of the relationship between peoples and to the tragedies of those who entrust their lives to a hope placed precisely in our European community.

The current social and political phase of consolidation of nationalist tendencies, fueled by feelings of resentment and selfishness linked to the pandemic and economic crisis and to the confusion and fear regarding the future and the changes underway, can only be adequately addressed by decisively relaunching the values ​​of solidarity, hospitality and respect for the human rights of all living beings. We therefore recommend to society, to Europe that the social pillar of the Union be strengthened, that the values ​​of solidarity and respect for human rights be upheld, that shared and sustainable solutions of protection and salvation be sought for those who suffer and die at the borders. of our Union. I hope to be able to write a good practice experience soon for the benefit of our brothers who are so unjustly tried.


Gianfranco Cattai
NP March 2021

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