Yesterday late, I have gone to St. John of Lateran. Thanks to the Romans, to the kindness of the Mayor and to some authorities of the Italian Government, it has been a pleasant event for me. However, it was not pleasant for me, but very painful, to have known, a few days ago, by the newspapers, that a Roman student has been killed coldly, by a trivial reason. One of so many cases of violence that continuously disturb this our poor and troubled society.
The case of Luca Locci, a seven years old boy, kidnapped three months ago, has also become a topical subject again. People, sometimes, say: 'we are in a society totally rotten, totally dishonest'. This is not true. There are still many good people, many honest people. It would rather be necessary to ask oneself: what should we do to improve the society? I would say: 'may each one try to be good and to transmit the others with a goodness entirely plenty of meekness and love taught by Christ'. Christ' gold rule is: 'Do not do to others what you do not want they do to you. Do to others what you want they do to you. Learn from Me that I am meek and humble of heart' and He always gave example of this. Put on the Cross, He, not only forgave who crucified Him, but He excused them, saying: 'Father, forgive them because they do not know what they do'. This is Christianity; these would be the feelings that, put in practice, would help society very much.
This year it is the 30th anniversary of Georges Bernanos' death, a great Catholic writer. One of his best known works is 'Carmelites' dialogues'. It was published a year after his death. He had prepared it working on a novel of the German writer, Gertrud van le Fort. He had prepared it for the theatre. And it has been played. Music has also been included and then it has been projected in the cinematographic screens of the whole world. It is very known. However, the fact was historical. Pius X, in 1906, just here in Rome, had beatified the 16 Carmelites of Compiègne, martyrs during the French Revolution.
