“How many wars could have been avoided and could be avoided, how many lives could have been saved and could be saved, if we had worked and if we worked more and better to make room for God, for justice, for mutual understanding among peoples, for cooperation, for the common good, for the good of all, for our good but also for the good of others”. Card. Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said this yesterday, on the solemnity of Sts Hermagoras and Fortunatus, patron saints of the Archdiocese of Gorizia, during the homily of the Mass he celebrated in the Basilica of Aquileia. The cardinal focused on “the world’s hatred” defining it as “the other face of Jesus’ revelation and election of the disciples”. “In a certain sense – he explained -, it is the characteristic trait of a faithful disciple”. The cardinal then turned his attention to the fact that “the hatred of which the Gospel speaks” is “not the fruit of some kind of religious paranoia”. “A Christian does not seek persecution, does not have enemies everywhere, does not accuse anyone, does not provoke anyone, and knows that he himself is always called to conversion”. “Hatred, on the contrary – Card. Parolin pointed out – is simply what is revealed by the ‘worldliness’ of the world and of each individual with respect to the Gospel: his indifference, his distance, his misunderstanding, his different hierarchy of values”. Finally, he recalled the two martyred patron saints of the Italian town of Gorizia, Hermagoras and Fortunatus, saying: “In following Jesus, they bore a pastoral responsibility and the weight of bearing witness to a lifetime of love”.