There is also Father Salvatore Morittu among the winners, this morning at the Quirinale, by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, with the honors of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
The recognition, of which Father Morittu had been informed at the beginning of the year on the day he was discharged from the hospital , in Sassari, after contracting Covid, comes "for having dedicated his entire life to combating drug addictions and 'social exclusion ".
The honors delivered this morning by Mattarella, relating to the years 2020 and 2021, are conferred "motu proprio" to citizens distinguished for their civic sense and solidarity, overcoming barriers, health protection, international cooperation, acts of heroism, culture of inclusion, children's rights, ethical entrepreneurship, legality and social cohesion and commitment to issues of social relevance.
"FRIAR SALVATORE" - "Mr. President, I spent Christmas in an anti-covid ward (after 39 living with drug addicts), with new poor - Father Morittu wrote to Mattarella in a letter of thanks - and I, poor with them, and with the exhausted but tireless health staff. For me as a Franciscan it was like living a Christmas in Greccio embodied in the actuality of this pandemic ”.
“When we can meet - he added - I ask you to add to the title of 'Commander' also that of 'Brother Salvatore': it will make me feel even more at ease with my father San Francesco".
"You will understand, Mr. President, that the joy of being alive and being able to go home, has overcome the embarrassment and honor that you wanted to give to my person", Father Morittu explained. “Nonetheless, I want to thank you so much because you have turned your gaze to the people and problems of my Sardinia”. "You honored my Friars, the Volunteers of our Association - he continued - ... and an incredible multitude of men and women who in these 40 years have lived with me on the frontier of drugs, AIDS and social exclusion in Sardinia ".
THE PROFILE - Father Morittu , in 1980, founded the San Mauro Community in Cagliari, the first residential therapeutic community for drug addicts in Sardinia and the San Mauro Reception Center to prepare young people for the residential program and at the same time to do prevention in the area. Only two years later he gave life to the Community of S'Aspru, in the countryside of Siligo, in the Sassari area, using an old farm owned by the diocese.
In 1984 it was the turn of the "Città di Sassari" Reception Center, with the same functions as that of Cagliari and of the "Mondo X - Sardinia Association for the defense of man".
Since 1985 it has begun to welcome young people living with HIV and AIDS patients into the community who, starting from 1998, will be hosted in the Sant'Antonio Abate Family Home, the only socio-residential structure on the island that welcomes people with HIV and diseases. related.
Father Morittu is a founding member of the Italian Drug Addiction Society which brings together the most famous researchers in the medical-pharmacological-social field at national level.
(Unioneonline / vl)