by Marcello Veneziani

Speaking of Europe. But have you heard anyone mention that the 15 February of 1944 the symbol of the Christian civilization of Europe was destroyed by a rain of 576 tons of bombs dropped by 227 Anglo-American flying fortresses? And the massacre continued for days and then resumed in mid-March. I'm talking aboutMontecassino Abbey founded in 529 from San Benedetto, patron saint of Europe, where the monks under the banner of ora et labora saved the classical roots of Europe: the work of Plato and Aristotle, of Ovid and Virgil, of Plotinus, the codes, geometry. That convent had resisted the assault of the Moors and the massacre of Napoleon's soldiers. But that rain of fire of the 1944 destroyed the abbey, which not even the Germans had wanted to desecrate; then they barricaded themselves among its ruins and fought for another three months. There was no strategic motivation behind that attack. A millennium and a half of history, of faith and wisdom destroyed in a day of barbarism. When they say that populists and sovereignists are the barbarians attacking Europe, why not remember this barbaric event of 75 years ago and the Benedictine abbey which had been a place of salvation for European roots threatened by the barbarians?

I remember the Romanian writer's emotion Horia fan when he told me about his visit to the Abbey before and after the destruction. Here is the loss of the center, he said with shining eyes, a center of spiritual radiation of European civilization where its Greek roots were preserved, Roman and Christian, hit in the heart. Hollywood will he ever make a film about Monte Cassino, the European Union will ever think of producing it and Pope Francis will remember it tomorrow? Pray and ignore.
MV

fonte -http://www.marcelloveneziani.com/articoli/quando-leuropa-fu-colpita-al-cuore/