God is near

On the night of April 6, at 3.32 a high-intensity seismic wave, of 6.3 magnitude, hit and devastated a large area of Abruzzo, a region located in central Italy, seriously damaging L’Aquila, the administrative centre of the region. The earthquake left 300 dead, thousands injured and 53438 evacuees (data from June 22). Thirty thousand left without a home are currently hosted in lodgings on the Adriatic coast while 23 thousand are sheltered in the over 150 tent cities set up by Italy’s Civil Defence. Volunteers of Italy’s Caritas and from several dioceses across the Country were among the first to bring first aid and assistance to the local population. A long chain of solidarity, ongoing still now, culminated with a national collection of funds promoted by CEI past May 31st. On June 24 the collected sum amounted to over 20 million Euro, which add up to 5 million euro allocated by the Italian Bishops’ Conference immediately after the tragedy. Indeed, material reconstruction goes hand in hand with the moral and spiritual recovery. The earthquake devastated not only houses, monuments and offices, it also decimated entire families, destroyed affective bonds, breaking entire ecclesial communities, putting their faith to dire test. To these, to the faithful, and to those that were not directly involved in the seism, the bishops of the Bishops’ Conference of the Abbruzzo-Molise (11 dioceses) region addressed their words with a document titled “God is near- living with faith the time of the earthquake” with reference to a similar document drawn up on the occasion of the earthquake in the Irpinia region (Southern Italy) in 1980, that caused some 3000 deaths. The fact-sheets. The document presents fact-sheets for “reflection, dialogue and prayer, which provide a religious reading of the event”. Each fact-sheet comprises three paragraphs: the acknowledgment of facts and problems (Facts), reference to passages from the Bible bearing special relevance and their analysis (Confrontation), while the last point presents proposals for concrete intervention (Action). The themes centre on three points: the earthquake, the emergency and the reconstruction. As relates to the first – the earthquake – fact-sheets highlight the presence of God and the responsibility of mankind, the second – emergency – addresses the urgent situation as a time for communion, co-responsibility and hope. In the third point – reconstruction – the bishops address the objectives of reconstruction and the difficult path of its pursuance. The three moments. In the document it is stated, “Before this tragic occurrence of suffering and death”, the bishops “highlight the Pascal mystery that sheds light on the paternity and the faithfulness of God against moralistic images of judgement and punishment”. While “before human egotisms disclosed by the earthquake event” the document highlights Christians’ commitment “for justice, to the light of the prophets and of the freedom of Jesus of Nazareth”. As relates to the emergency, this is viewed as “the hour of communion and co-responsibility”, against the “temptation of egoistic isolation and the deferral of the commitment to others, while Christian love is proposed so that each one may take on the burden of the other person and proceed together”. Hence the emergency is viewed as “a moment of hope” “against desperation and passive resignation. Christian hope is the thrust enabling the individual governance of the future with faith in God”. In the document the bishops warn the faithful against the danger of reducing “reconstruction to mere material satisfaction (recovering a home)”, and highlight “the integral Christian vision aimed at the recovery of the human person and his community”. The way towards recovery, the bishops declare, “is difficult”. “Christian vigilance is needed against egoism, hoarding, impatience and delays. This must be viewed as the willingness to undertake sacrifice holding a critical approach towards unjustified delays”. Christians and reconstruction. In other words, the “primary objective for Christians engaged in the reconstruction, consists in the recovery of the community, that ought to bear concrete life possibilities, where each person will be enabled to retrieve his true self. It is necessary to present pedagogically efficient itineraries thus developing an attitude of constant quest for the Kingdom of God. This quest, in concrete terms, entails the priority to the reconstruction of the community rejecting opposing stances, namely those that satisfy egoistic drives or based on purely material goods; demanding intervention in favour of the poorest among the poor; enabling everyone to make a living with their employment, creating the conditions for the practice of spiritual and intellectual activity”. However the reconstruction “cannot take place without the active engagement of the local populations directly involved. It’s important to recover the path enabling to convey support to all those conscientiously and actively committed in the public administration, in order to promote the equality of citizens, clearly denouncing patronage system and money swindling, promoting an education whereby public administration players account for their engagements by presenting accurate programs, by respecting deadlines etc.