«Remembering today means not only looking at the past, but making a commitment to the present. Franco’s memory can become a living engine of justice, legality and social cohesion. It is a memory illuminated by faith, an act of justice towards Franco and his family. This community of ours owes a lot to him and his family. And today he intends to express his gratitude with prayer and affectionate closeness.” The bishop of Locri-Gerace, mons. Francesco Oliva, during the homily given on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the killing of Francesco Fortugno, vice president of the Regional Council of Calabria. «Remembering Franco – continued Mgr. Oliva – is to forcefully say that evil and violence do not have the last word. The sacrifice of Franco and his family, as it shook the consciences of many men and women of that time, opened a new time for Locri and for our entire country, calling everyone to choose which side to take: on the side of legality or on the side of complicit silence, of civil participation or of complicity and silence? In Franco we continue to see – continued the bishop – the image of an honest man who believed in the possibility of a different society, of a different South, founded not on fear but on hope. He remains for us the emblem of those who believe in a different Calabria, in a different Locride, free from the grip of the ‘ndrangheta and capable of building a future made of rights, justice and transparency”.
Fortugno’s testimony, said Mgr. Oliva, «is not a monument to be honored every year, but a legacy to continue and live every day. Franco was a politician with roots among the people, a man of institutions, a doctor, a believer, a servant of the common good. He was convinced that good politics is service: «A politics that is not close is not politics». Twenty years later, his voice “And now it’s your turn” resonates as an appeal not to remain spectators, but to be protagonists of social and civil renewal, to emerge from one’s individualism and to be positive creators of living in society. As a Church we feel the responsibility to educate in evangelical legality, which is love for truth, respect for life, care for the environment and pursuit of the common good. Faith – he added – makes us more present in the life of the community and pushes us to live it with responsibility”.