Lorefice: “Giulia’s murder causes me great pain and questions consciences”

Last Updated: November 25, 2023

Palermo, primo giorno all'istituto Saladino nel nome di don Puglisi

Today throughout Italy we question ourselves about Giulia. I feel a deep pain inside me. A pain of a father and a brother. Because today Giulia is a daughter and a sister for each of us. I feel the agony of this cruel murder, which has fatally wounded the family and friends,” writes Archbishop of Palermo Corrado Lorefice in a message for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women established by the UN. “I feel the dismay of the parents of the one who killed and I hope for him a process of intimate awareness of the terrible evil he has done, making himself the master of the life of a young woman whose dreams he has cut short and overshadowed the sun,” Lorefice continues. “Until yesterday, right here in our Palermo, we were equally dismayed about ‘Asià, raped at the Foro Italico like prey. I mention Giulia and Asia together with all the other women, victims whose names we do not remember, just as we do not know and perhaps do not hold in our hearts the names of the hundreds of women outraged by rape, the thousands who are victims of violence and abuse every day within families, at work, in their daily journeys, in their relationships.” “This is not about raising male children – the bishop writes – but about all of us coming together towards a different way of living the differences, finding the strength of being a community, of not remaining isolated and devoid of genuine confrontation.”