«For years we have lived alongside people whose fragility has taught us to see others differently; they have guided us toward recognizing not a person's merit, but the acceptance of each one for who they are—different from us, certainly, difficult to understand… They have taught us not to stop at surfaces, to stand up for understanding and dialogue, to distrust prejudice», wrote Mariangela Bertolini in 2011.
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Dima is surely one of these. A Russian boy whom Stefano Marchetti met (in OL no. 129) during a pilgrimage ten years ago when Ukraine was chosen as the only possible destination to celebrate forty years of Faith and Light. Though unknown to the province organizing the event, it was the sole country where the many nationalities taking part would face no barrier. Russians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Georgians, and Slovaks in their religious forms—ranging from Protestant Christianity to Roman Catholicism to various Orthodox churches—had found an oasis of peace in the city of Lviv. On that occasion, Dima, of Orthodox tradition, simply could not understand why he should be kept from the Catholic Eucharistic celebration. His heart was naturally open to encounter and to peace, truly "called to be—as Faith and Light's Charter says—a source of grace and peace for the whole community, and also for the Churches and for all humanity."
We know nothing of how Dima fares today. But we know what is unfolding in the land of that pilgrimage. We know of many Russians who are not Putin. We hear a cry for peace that seems to echo into empty silence. As this Lenten season begins, our thoughts remain with all the fragile innocents who, like Dima, will certainly pay the price of this conflict—on both sides.
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