The massacre occurred at eight o’clock in the morning on 10 June 1944. The Nazis entered the little town of Oradour-sur Glane and, as they passed through, killed in cold blood 642 civilians, including 246 women and 207 children. Sixty years after that tragic day, the town commemorated the massacre with a series of events: a prayer vigil on Wednesday 9 June and a mass on the following day concelebrated by the archbishop of Strasbourg Msgr. Joseph Doré and by the archbishop of Limoges, Msgr. Christophe Dufour. “The events of the life of our diocese and the approaching European elections said Archbishop Dufour, relating the anniversary of the Oradour massacre to current affairs prompt me to make a heartfelt appeal for the construction of a Europe for peace. We wish it. We need it. It is our duty and our responsibility to history”. In a message sent to mark the commemoration, the Pope too appealed to contemporary Europe not to forget “the sufferings of the past” and to “build a society of peace and of brotherhood”. The message written by Msgr. Luigi Sandri, deputy Vatican Secretary of State was read out by the bishop of Limoges during the mass concelebrated for the first time together with the archbishop of Strasbourg: a significant concelebration, since Alsatians were also present at and hence participated in the massacre. “At a time when the peoples of Europe are proceeding along the path of unity says the message the celebration of this anniversary invites our contemporaries not to forget the sufferings of the past and the responsibilities of those implicated in the massacre. It appeals to them to build a society of peace and of brotherhood in which people may shake each other by the hand and be reconciled, so that such events may never be repeated again and love may triumph over hatred and the desire for revenge. May this ancient little town remain as a memorial to peace that invites us to build a new future”.
