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Letter of Pope Francis to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Don Pino Puglisi
(He was priest in Sicily’s Palermo. Neigborhood. He openly challenged the Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood. Tney killed him on his 56th Birthday
(One of the hitmen who killed Puglisi, Salvatore Grigoli, later confessed and revealed the priest’s last words as his killers approached: “I’ve been expecting you”)
Puglisi’s words are scrawled on walls locally:
If everyone does something, then we can do a lot”
Dear Brother Archbishop of Palermo
Thirty years have passed since the evening of 15 September 1993, when dear Don Pino Puglisi, a good priest and merciful witness of the Father, tragically ended his earthly existence in the very place where he had decided to be a “worker of peace”, sowing the seed of the Word that saves, that proclaims love and forgiveness in a land that is for many “dry and rocky”, but even there the Lord let the “good grain and the weeds” grow together (Mt 13:24-30 – Jesus put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants[a] of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants[b] said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”).
I wish to join with you spiritually on this significant anniversary and to thank the God of all consolation for the gift of the Blessed Martyr Don Pino Puglisi, son and pastor of the beloved Church of Palermo and of the whole of Sicily.`
On his birthday, he was killed in the street by the murderous hand of a young man.
The streets of the neighborhood were the field Church that he had sacrificially served and traveled to meet the people during his pastoral ministry, in a land that he knew and that he never tired of caring for and watering with the regenerating waters of the Gospel, so that each person could quench his thirst and enjoy the refreshment of the soul to face the harshness of a life that was not always merciful.
Everyone remembers what he said to the murderer: “I’ve been expecting you”.
And so he smiled: that smile, which I mentioned in my homily during my visit to Palermo five years ago (Holy Mass at the Foro Italico), reaches us like “a gentle light that penetrates and enlightens the heart”.
Following the example of Jesus, Don Pino reached the depths of love. He had the same features of the meek and humble “good shepherd”: his young people, whom he knew one by one, bear witness to a man of God who favored the small and the defenseless; he educated them in freedom, in love and respect for life.
Often, with evangelical simplicity, he cried out the meaning of his tireless commitment in defense of the family, in defense of the many children condemned to premature adulthood and to suffering, and of the urgency of communicating to them the values of a more dignified existence, thus freeing them from the slavery of evil. This priest did not stop, he gave himself out of love, embracing the cross even to the shedding of blood.
To you pastors, in whose hands the Lord has entrusted his people in this island, so rich in history and at a crossroads of peoples and cultures, I address my invitation not to stop in the face of the many human and social wounds of the present time, which continue to bleed and need to be healed with the oil of consolation and the balm of mercy.
The preferential option for the poor is urgent; they are faces that question us and guide us in prophecy. As an ecclesial community on the move, all this challenges your synodal discernment in order to initiate a renewed pastoral ministry that concretely responds to today’s needs.
Therefore, I urge you to bring out the beauty and the difference of the Gospel, to carry out actions and find the the right language to demonstrate the tenderness of God, his justice and his mercy.
These are the signs that the Christian is called to place in the city of man to illuminate it in the construction of a new humanity.
The martyr Don Pino Puglisi had a wisdom that was both practical and profound: at the same time; in fact, he liked to say: “If everyone does something, then we can do a lot”.
Let this be an invitation to each one of us to overcome our many personal fears and resistances and to work together to build a just and fraternal society.
We know how much Don Pino fought so that no one would feel alone in the face of the challenge of degradation and the hidden forces of crime; we also know how isolation, closed and complicit individualism are powerful weapons for those who wish to bend others to their own interests.
The answer is communion, walking together, as one body, members united to the Head (cf. 1 Cor 12:12), to the shepherd and guide of our souls (cf. 1 Pet 2:25).
Live together in Christ, especially in the priesthood, together with the Bishop and among yourselves, and “surpassing one another in showing honor”
You, who daily bear the responsibilities of the priestly ministry in contact with the realities within this territory, be always and everywhere a true image of the welcoming Good Shepherd, have the courage to dare without fear and to inspire hope in those you meet, especially the weakest, the sick, the suffering, the migrants, those who have fallen and want to be helped to rise again. Let the young be the centre of your care: they are the hope of the future.
May the disarming smile of Fr. Pino Puglisi inspire you on to be joyful and courageous disciples, ready above all for that constant interior conversion that makes you more ready to serve your brothers and sisters, faithful to your priestly promises and docile in obedience to the Church.
While I entrust each one of you to the protection of the Virgin Mary and the Blessed Martyr Pino Puglisi, I send my Blessing, and ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.
Fraternally
Rome, from Saint John Lateran, 31 July 2023
Liturgical memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
FRANCIS
