In memory of Sister Maria De Coppi killed in Mozambique
The thought of Sister Anna Monia Alfieri for the missionary killed in Mozambique, Sister Maria De Coppi
The news of the violent death of Sister Maria De Coppi cannot leave any of us indifferent. It is a death that challenges everyone, me first, in sharing the choice of life, even in two different Congregations. Mors et vita duel conflixere aiming . A woman was killed but death does not have the last word, because of an extraordinary life that affects everyone for the gratuitousness of the gift, of the total oblation for the poor, for their rights, for their conditions.
The verses of Manzoni referring to Ermengarda come back to mind: to the God of the saints to ascend / saint of her suffering. A death that generates life for the good done daily, in silence, and which therefore strikes the most. There are extraordinary lives, made up of good and service, of which no one has any news. But it is the good that saves Sodom from destruction.
How much need our society for examples and models like that of Sister Maria! How much do our young people need to be guided in making choices of good, of responsibility for others, for the poor in Mozambique, for the Afghan refugee, for the child of separated parents. How many poverty hide behind the appearance of economic wealth, how many fragility we experience in our Italy!
Then, the death of a missionary nun in Mozambique becomes the occasion for an urgent reflection on the new generations, those who tomorrow will be called to solve the problems of the various poverties of the world. For this to happen, however, young people must be given the opportunity for real training, in a free school, to which everyone can access, without any economic discrimination. The poor are not only in Mozambique: there are many parents who cannot freely choose the school for their child because they cannot pay the tuition that the equal school must ask to survive and therefore they have to be satisfied. And the discontent sooner or later manifests itself.
Who knows how many times Sister Maria will have experienced loneliness and misunderstanding but the certainty of living for something greater will have given her new courage and new determination. The conquest of civilization does not need heroes but rather citizens deeply in love with reality and willing to serve and not to give in to the arrogance of evil. This death reminds me of personal responsibility, the role that each of us, religious or lay, has for the other. Being uncomfortable helps the other to become aware of reality and to take action to improve it. Only if we go back to considering everyone's public affairs, to see immigration as an opportunity for welcome and integration, only then can we hope for a sense of this suffering.
So the death of a missionary must make everyone reflect, because it is from school, from formation that the solutions to every form of poverty, material, spiritual, cultural pass. As a citizen and as a believer I trust that this death is not in vain and opens the minds of many, in Mozambique as well as in Italy.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/in-memoria-di-suor-maria-de-coppi-uccisa-in-mozambico/ on Fri, 09 Sep 2022 12:32:57 +0000.