San Gennaro, Bishop Battaglia: "Naples needs a new hope"

Naples. "Today Bishop Gennaro, the sign of his blood shed for the love of Christ and his brothers, tells us that goodness, beauty, and kindness are and always will be victorious.

This is the meaning of this blood which, united with the blood shed by Christ and that of all the martyrs of every place and time, is a living testimony that love always wins. It matters little, my brothers and sisters, whether the blood sheds or not: let us never reduce this celebration to an oracle to be consulted." This was stated by the Archbishop of Naples, Don Mimmo Battaglia, in his homily delivered on the occasion of the celebrations of San Gennaro in the Cathedral.

"What truly matters to the Lord, what our bishop and martyr Gennaro forcefully asks of us," added Don Mimmo Battaglia, "is a daily commitment to bet on love, to dissolve the clots of selfishness, to break down the solid dams that hold back goodness, allowing the sap of love, like blood, to flow through the veins of this city, down to the last capillary, giving everyone hope, trust, the possibility of redemption, and newness of life." 

Naples, Monsignor Battaglia, the city needs new hope

Let's not hide the truth from ourselves: there are many reasons to be worried, many reasons to be discouraged in this historical period. From war to the energy crisis, from a global pandemic to the endemic evil of local crime, let's not forget that in the face of historical hardships, those who pay the price are often the least fortunate, the poorest, the youngest, even the oldest.

This metropolitan city of ours needs living blood, a new lymph of love, a new hope, and this is what the Lord asks of us today, and what Gennaro asks of us."

And then he added: Every child in this city belongs to you, and that's why we need to be even more committed to the Educational Pact process, reawakening the "we" in those involved in education: in October, in some areas of the city, discussions will begin to create local "educational networks."

Networks capable of getting there before the Camorra system: a system that kills a poor homeless man chosen to be the guinea pig for the apprenticeship of a young killer apprentice, a system that enlists more and more minors who cannot be charged with crime, a system that looks to young people who are overlooked by others as a source of new recruits.

"The Pact must and can prevent all this, through active educational networks, with two Ts, networks in which everyone demonstrates a genuine willingness to walk together," he continues. "I am certain that San Gennaro also joins his voice with the voice of the little ones to ask for the miracle of solidarity, to implore from our hardened and indifferent hearts the wonder of the common good, to invoke the dissolution of those social clots made of unfulfilled promises, of declared but unfulfilled commitments, of entrenched individualisms that struggle to create networks and community, the only way to spread goodness with both hands.", concluded Don Battaglia.

San Gennaro, the blessing with the chorus "Magnificent People"

The Bishop of Naples, Monsignor Domenico Battaglia, went outside the Cathedral of Naples and blessed the many faithful present with the shrine containing the blood of Saint Gennaro. The choir provided the background music, singing the song "Gente magnifica gente" from the film Scugnizzi, written by Claudio Mattone. Battaglia himself had previously cited key passages from the song as an example.

"People of Naples, magnificent people of my land, it is only by sitting together, by the will to be not only with each other but for each other, that we can change the culture of indifference, creating a close-knit educational network, thus giving hope to the present and future of our land.", He said.