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�� And two. For the second time in the passing
of a few days, a Roman priest ended up at the center of a little friendly
attention. The parish priest of Settibagni, on the outskirts of Rome, was
insulted and beaten by a youth who he had just scolded for spitting on the
sanctuary.
�� Unbalanced�so the journalists wrote. The
same adjective used to describe the man who attacked the first priest in
Acilia, whose identity is now better known. He was not a Mafioso�as someone
maliciously theorized in order to obtain unanimous condemnation�but merely a
husband whose wife had recently left him who was enraged by the intrusion of
the priest into his emotional life. And the priest was not the only one to
provoke his ire. The carabinieri had also interfered and he had met them in
this way: a fist in the face and two molotovs against one of their
headquarters.
�� He, too, is unbalanced. There can be no
doubt. After all, the priests and the carabinieri may not be good people, but
why lose one�s temper with them in this way? And without a noble justification,
a high ideal, which may be quite debatable, but is quite convenient to display
like a flag. Or rather like a certified doctor capable of removing the shameful
stain of caprice and madness.
�� Instead, nothing. Who knows what might have
passed through his head? Who knows what the motive of those who spit on the
sanctuary and beat the priests is? Indeed, who knows? Unbalanced, it is clear.
Because it is unbalanced to try to resolve the conflicts that afflict one�s
life by oneself, without resorting to mediators. It is even more unbalanced to
identify those who build their power on affliction and conflict. Does not the
justification of the role of priests and carabinieri�not to speak of their
salary or their easy jobs�consist in their competence in providing solutions to
the problems of others? And what can be said then of some one who, having
identified those who stick their noses into the personal lives of others,
directly moves to strike them? Unbalanced, no other word is needed.
�� And so it is. The balanced stand on the
other side. Together with the priests, their faithful on patrol and in prayer,
with the carabinieri.
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