"During the Jubilee Year of Extraordinary Mercy (...) and amid celebrations marking the sixtieth anniversary of Blessed Don Gnocchi's death, this text brings together authoritative and diverse voices whose arguments converge on questions that remain eternally urgent: Can we name human suffering? Is there a human and Christian reason for it—a possible, plausible meaning to suffering, especially the suffering of the innocent? ..." (from the book's preface, p. 10)
For Don Carlo, these fifty pages were meant as a spiritual testament (published as his earthly life drew to a close) to those he entrusted with his work of mercy—a work born from responding to the anguish of children who had carried away terrible physical and psychological wounds from war, and which would later extend to all who suffered from debilitating illness of every kind. The path toward accepting human suffering—above all the suffering of children—is truly hard. For Don Carlo, the only possible answer was to look to the Crucified Christ.
In him emerged a special grace born of the immense suffering he witnessed during the war. As a military chaplain, he never abandoned his Alpine soldiers on the Russian front; he followed them through their harrowing retreat; he returned home and spent his life ensuring that such suffering would not be rendered meaningless—all in the name of the Crucified Jesus. The published book contains contributions from Cardinal Angelo Scola and Salvatore Natoli, who from different vantage points do not shy away from continuing to ask questions about a theme that has always stirred the human soul.
Cristina Tersigni, 2016