At the entrance to the old church of Cristo Re, in Valledoria, recovered after the fire that devastated the new church last January, the faithful found a letter on Easter Sunday. It bears the signature of Don Francesco Cossu, the new parish administrator who took over from Don Francesco Martino Mocci, the parish priest targeted by the arson attacks who wanted to send a message of Easter greetings, but above all a tangible sign of closeness, comfort and hope.
In this writing, which Don Francesco Cossu, retraces with profound and touching words the days following the criminal act, which occurred on January 8, that hit Valledoria - an episode on which the police are still investigating. But, even more than the pain and dismay, "the unshakable strength of faith and the extraordinary ability of the people of God to react, roll up their sleeves and rebuild together emerge". The letter is a hymn to rebirth, to solidarity, to the beauty of lived brotherhood. "It is the story of a concrete Easter, made not only of liturgy, but of daily life, of hands that join together to get up and look forward". The letter reads: "Dear brothers and sisters, when on January 8, 2025, unexpected smoke was seen, an intense burning smell was perceived and the wild cry of: "Fire!", "the church is burning" was heard, a lot of curiosity arose throughout the diocese and even in Sardinia, among us only pain, dismay, shame. We all felt wounded in body and spirit. Everything was lost, everything was burned."
The rest is history. "But think how inscrutable are the ways of the Lord who, as the old proverb says, writes straight on crooked lines. Once the smoke from the fire had cleared, we looked around and found ourselves stunned here, but close to each other. The firefighters, however, found something intact: the thread of our Faith, of our new and strengthened brotherhood. Still with ashes on us, we found ourselves huddled together in a renewed community, animated by the incredible and bold desire to reclaim our right to the Sacred, to the Divine, to prayer, to the refuge for our spirituality. A thought for those poor burning bricks and then... off! To rebuild, to paint, to wash, to varnish, to fill, to empty, to refresh: and the little old church of Christ the King immediately became the symbolic place to reorganize life in the city of Christ. Baptisms, funerals, communions, confessions, Easter pastoral, consolations, visits: a ferment of life that smells new, a choral embrace from all of us, a desire to be reborn, to participate, to be there. How many hands, how much work, how many smiles, how much willingness to collaborate from so many people, from the various Committees, from the municipal administration, from the Police Forces, how much hope!
And again: "With what means? Our generosity and our faith! Who will ever be able to set fire to the faith of those women and men, young and old, who armed with detergents, have given a new place to our prayers? No one. We are perhaps few, but our beacon is Christ, who with his strength and his suffering, has left us heirs of constructive hope, which uses the hands of all. The walls of the burned church, immobile, still fenced, smile a light smile. They know that soon our hands will also clean its tabernacle, its glass, its tired handles; those walls serenely await the day of the feast, in which, thanks to You and your courageous enterprises, its bells will be able, gratefully, to call you to celebrate with the Lord. Our history: Ampurias, Codaruina, malaria, the Coghinas with its floods beneficial to fertility. the wonderful air of the Gulf of Asinara, the post-war entrepreneurship, tourism and real estate and commercial development today, everything has contributed to attracting different people from other places: yesterday transhumant shepherds and farmers; today entrepreneurs, tourists, new professions».
"So much beauty of this immense natural amphitheater of Gallura and Anglona - he continues - contributed to convincing the people to stay and to establish permanent settlements, from which our current towns of Badesi, Tozza, Muntiggioni, Azzagulta, Viddalba, Santa Maria and Valledoria were born. All so different, all so far away: some shepherds and farmers, some entrepreneurs, some students, some cultured, some illiterate; apparently impossible to think of a single people. If it is true that these lands have been called the Garden of Gallura, it is also true that its people with their will, courage and resourcefulness represent the plants of God's Garden. We too, after the cry of "Fire!"; “The Church is burning!”, we have become a people, with the right to reclaim the place of the spirit, the place where we can celebrate the most important events of our lives, where we can laugh, sing and console each other, where we can welcome wayfarers, where we can offer the best foods for sharing, where our children can play. How much fertilizer from that fire! What could have seemed like a disaster has become our redemption, that of a people who say no to that attempt to pit us against each other, because we have placed the church within our lives, within our families. We are rebuilding not only a church of bricks, but above all a church of people. A community from within our souls, each entrusted to the other, as Jesus crucified asked Mary and the apostle John. This is our Easter! To be welcomed into our hearts! To overcome what divides with our unity, to come together and collaborate. With the resurrection of Christ, our local church will also be resurrected, our community, which will be rejuvenated, new, more beautiful. Happy Easter to everyone!