War doesn't stop at the threshold of barbarism, President Sergio Mattarella said in Cassino Friday ata ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the town and its storied abbey in the Allied advance against German resistance up the spine of Italy in WWII.
"While a feeling of pity rises up for the dead, for the civilian victims, at the same time, a movement of repulsion cannot butarise on the part of all consciences for the destruction of a territory and its resources, for the annihilation of the families that inhabited it , in the pursuit of the blind logic of war, that of reducing the enemy to nothing, with no respect for the innocent victims," said the president on the anniversary of the culmination of the Battle of Monte Cassino.
"Mourning and suffering, paid for to a large extent by the blameless civilian population, starting with the disastrous bombardment of 15 February against the Abbey, in which, along with the monks, displaced families perished, many people who had taken refuge there counting on the immunity of a religiousbuilding, an expression of high culture universally known.
"But war does not know how to stop at the threshold of barbarism".
Mattarella went on to say that Italy must build bridges of dialogue.
In the Constitution there is "a solemn affirmation: therepudiation of war as an instrument of offense against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of settling international disputes", he said.
"It is the few words of Article 11 that contain the reasons, the premises of our country's role and positions in the international community: to build bridges of dialogue, of cooperation with other nations, with respect for each people".
He also said that the EU must take responsibility for peace.
"The new Abbey has the same vocation, but it also aspires to beevidence of a heightened awareness of the horrors of war and howEurope must assume a permanent role in building a peace based on dignity and freedom.
We are challenged by this.
"These are bitter months - now years - that we are going through.
"We hoped that Europe, founded on a promise of peace, would never again know war".
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