The killing of Aldo Moro shook the whole world
The Pope's weekly meeting with the faithful and pilgrims on Wednesday 10 April was characterized by the horror and pain of Paul VI and all those present for the crime, committed in Rome the previous day, of the assassination of the illustrious statesman Italian, Hon. Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democrats.
The Holy Father began his meeting with the ecclesial assembly, in St. Peter's Basilica and then in the Audience Hall.
In the Vatican Basilica, four thousand children from various Italian dioceses, who had made their First Communion in the previous days, met with the Vicar of Christ at 11 in the morning.
Dear guys!
As you all certainly know, yesterday a very sad event, a horrible crime, was committed here in Rome. The Honorable Aldo Moro was cowardly killed, and abandoned in a general audience of the Holy Father Paul VI, 10 May 1978. He was a person of great authority, a politician of great importance and of a good and calm character. His premeditated, calculated killing, carried out secretly and without mercy, horrified the city, all of Italy and moved the entire world with indignation and pity. We have known him since the years of his youth, until he was a student at the University. He was a good and wise man, incapable of harming anyone; a very good professor and a man of politics and government, a person of great value, an exemplary family man, and what matters most was a man of excellent religious, social and human feelings. This crime shook the whole world of honest people, the whole of society; it is like a stain of blood, which dishonors our country; everyone talks about it, everyone is outraged by it; and you too, young people and children gathered in this Basilica, feel horror and pain at this event.
Well, dearest Children, and you Teachers and Relatives who are here with them for a shared moment of serene and solemn prayer, especially on the occasion of the Holy Communion of this childhood with the Lord Jesus, raise your thoughts with us, and recite, now, at the beginning of our short ceremony, a prayer for Aldo Moro, for his desolate family and for the whole nation.
This is how Paul VI spoke to the children:
Greetings to you, dearest boys, who this morning bring us the joy of this festive meeting: a breath of youth has entered with you into the solemn naves of this ancient temple. The spectacle that you offer to our gaze recalls that of nature in this spring season: the enchantment of a multicolored expanse of flowers, which the eye never tires of contemplating and the soul of admiring, drawing fresh sensations of joy from it , of serenity, of pacifying relaxation. These are precisely the feelings that arise from Our soul, in feeling the joyful thrill of your youthful enthusiasm vibrate next to Us. Thank you, therefore, for the comfort you provide us.
You have come to see the Pope. And what will be the word that the Pope will entrust to you in memory of this meeting? Here: may Jesus be your ideal! May He be the model from which you inspire your life, the Savior to whom you cling in moments of weakness and failure, the friend to whom you confide your sorrows, plans and hopes. Many of you have recently received him for the first time in the Eucharist and still have alive in your soul the memory of this very personal contact, which gave rise to a friendship destined, we hope, never to be interrupted again. The others already nourish their dialogue with Christ through habitual attendance at the Eucharistic Table, from which they draw the energy necessary to face with courage and coherence the choices, which gradually become more demanding.
Well, dearest guys, don't forget it: in Jesus alone you will be able to find the ultimate reasons for living, for loving, for suffering, for hoping; He alone can free you from the chains of sin and every other slavery that threatens your truest freedom; He can still infuse the Spirit of wisdom, fortitude and love into your hearts and thus make you capable of contributing effectively to the advent of a more just and more fraternal world. May Jesus, therefore, be beside you on the paths of life. May he comfort you in the daily fulfillment of your duties; May he defend you from the fatuous suggestions of a skeptical and hedonistic conception of existence; May he support you in the generous commitment to control passions, personal growth, and constructive inclusion in the social and ecclesial context.
In his name, We accompany you with a special Apostolic Blessing, which we heartily extend to your teachers, your parents and all your loved ones.
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Subsequently at 11,30, in the Audience Hall, to the numerous visitors from all over the world, Paul VI once again recalled the very sad event with the following words, which preceded the speech on Pentecost.
Dearest children and faithful and visitors all present!
It would appear to us to be a lack of sincerity and piety if, before addressing you the brief spiritual words prepared for this Audience, we did not associate all of you with the pain that has struck our hearts due to the barbaric death of the Honorable Aldo Moro, of which you also need to be informed about by the advertising that is made of it. We will now only tell you that this murderous act is serious in itself and for the moral and social repercussions that it can have. Instead, we would like the very reflection on this event to call everyone to very serious and practical thoughts about our participation, whether private or public, in the social life of our time, which must make us feel not only participants in, but partly responsible for, its development, in the sense that we must all ensure that our mentality and our customs are guided by a strong moral conscience.
The goodness of everyone's ideas and works must be more present and more effective in our world, so that it is spared the degeneration of which the unjust and tragic end of a statesman, good, serene, cultured and pious as he was Aldo Moro is a sign that causes fear and blushing. To this end, we wish to pray for him, for his family and for all of this society which surrounds us and for which we have our pastoral interest and our paternal affection, all the more so as the times become sadder. Pray, suffer and love too.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/audiences/1978/documents/hf_p-vi_aud_19780510_it.html
