Last week I wrote about light in this extremely dark world. Could it be, I wonder, that we saw a glimmer of it in events at the weekend?
As has been reported all over the world, yesterday in France Muslims attended Catholic church services as a gesture of solidarity with their host country following the horrific events of last Tuesday. It has not been widely reported that Italian Muslims did the same here and that as many as 23,000 went to Mass in major cities from North to South.
To mention but a few of these services: in Rome three imams attended Mass at Santa Maria in Trastevere and one of them read the message,
"Here we are at home. We have come to say we are brothers."
The imam of Palermo attended a service in the Cathedral with other Muslims and Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando. In Catania, president of the Islamic Community of Sicily and imam of the Grand Mosque of Catania Abdelhafid Kheith said,
"We are here with our children to convey to them a strong message and to let them understand what it means to be among friends and brothers, what the human brotherhood means."
There are, it has to be said, people who have criticised the initiative but I think the message read in Catania is a very hopeful sign.
And now, if I may quote a Welshman:
"Light breaks where no sun shines."
- Dylan Thomas
2 comments:
I am happy to hear about this, especially the things that were said. It really does give one hope, doesn't it?
Yes, it does, colette.
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