Lorefice in Palermo Cathedral: “Immaculate frees us from deceit and lies”

Last Updated: December 8, 2023

“In a time without waiting, filled with winds of misfortune, wars, urban and domestic violence in Palermo as in Padua, in Kiev as in Gaza, the announcement to Mary resounds as good news.” These are the words of the archbishop of Palermo, Corrado Lorefice, in the pontifical of the Immaculate in the Cathedral. Don Corrado attacks “a sterile time”, not only “because of the low birth rate that is affecting our continent, which is getting older and older”, but also because of the winds of war blowing around it. The Cathedral is packed with faithful, who silently listen to the words of the archbishop collected in prayer. Lorefice then pointed the finger at fake news, “trash news, bad news, which arouse psychological fragility and fear – he emphasized in the homily. Insecurity, social aggressiveness, especially among young people, but also a feeling of disorientation and desolation among the elderly. A time that beats news of misfortune. Accustomed only to news that records winds of misfortune.” And he invites to look at the good news, which can change the axis of history: “There is an adventus, an arrival, a coming – he says – arrives what men and women alone cannot give themselves. The angel’s announcement to Mary, Immaculate Virgin, opens the world, our world immersed in the travail of history, fertilizes it and gives it an ecstatic vitality. It is the axis of the new history, free from the deception and lies of the omnipotence of man, of the claim to make himself like God. Deception, always lurking in every time and place, which precipitates human history into involution. What moves the serpent, the seducer, is a machination, a subtle, lying and divisive planning: that man denies being a dialogical creature to rise up as a creator, a holder of power. What moves God is a design of love, of life, of communion. The garden world of a fraternal home. God reorders history in Mary, a creature filled with grace, filled with God, loved always and forever.” In the afternoon at 4 pm the silver Procession of the Immaculate will start, which will cross the streets of the historic center of Palermo. At 5 pm the floral tribute of the firefighters in Piazza San Domenico, while at 6.30 pm Don Corrado will welcome the arrival of the Procession in the Cathedral.