Does there still exist today an ideal, a value, or a cause for which a young man or woman would be willing to lose their life?
The courage to give one’s life
Apparently so, judging by the clashes in Iran that have been ongoing since last September: young people are asking the Islamic Republic regime and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to ease repression and allow citizens the right to freedom of expression and access to information, as well as the right to peaceful assembly and association. In addition, young people are demanding the freedom to access education, especially for girls, and for women to be free not to wear the veil. Since the protests began, 530 demonstrators are reported to have died - including 71 children - while more than 19,000 are reported to have been arrested.
Or consider the approximately 1,733 environmental activists killed over the past ten years, particularly in South and Central America, where control and use of the land and territory is a central issue. Homicide figures tell only part of the story. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected. As many as 40% of the environmental activists killed are Indigenous, even though they account for just 5% of the world’s population.
Dying for one’s faith
But do people still die today because of their Christian faith? In the history of the Church, especially in ancient times, there have been countless martyrs. Even today, men and women of the Church and missionaries continue to be killed for their faith and their commitment to supporting the most vulnerable. In 2022, more than 100 priests and nuns were kidnapped, arrested, or murdered.
Let's take a step back: during the Second World War, there were heroic testimonies of faith. Here we mention the example of Rolando Rivi, a 14-year-old seminarian who was brutally killed by partisans in 1945 because of their hatred of the faith. Rolando Rivi was kidnapped by a group of partisans from the Garibaldi Brigade on April 10, 1945. After three days of horrific torture, inflicted solely because he refused to renounce his faith and wanted to wear his cassock, he was taken to a wooded area in Piane di Monchio, forced to dig his own grave, and then shot. Giuseppe Corghi and Delciso Rioli fired the shots. The executioners used his black cassock to make a soccer ball and then hung it up as a trophy. For that crime, both were tried and sentenced to 23 years in prison, but served only six following the Togliatti amnesty. Before he died, Rolando asked them to pray for his mother and father. He was beatified by Pope Francis on October 5, 2013.
The courage of forgiveness, asked for and received
In 2018, Meris Corghi, the daughter of the partisan who, on April 13, 1945, killed the young seminarian, asked for and received forgiveness from Rolando's family. She wrote a letter to Rolando's surviving relatives, expressing her desire to ask their forgiveness for the crime committed by her father Giuseppe.
And on April 16, in the ancient parish church of San Valentino in Castellarano, now a sanctuary, where Rolando was baptized and where he rests in an urn beneath the altar, during the Mass celebrated by the bishop of Reggio on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of his martyrdom, Meris embraced Rosanna, Rolando's sister, his cousins, and the other surviving relatives, after speaking words that moved those present.
