Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando arrived with a statue of Santa Rosalia, the city's patroness, in Mondello, saying the symbolic act reminds everyone that many, many immigrants arrive by sea too, and that they deserve to be welcomed and loved. The theme of this year's five-day feast, which begins Tuesday, is La Misericordia. It means Mercy, Compassion, Benevolence.
"In the year in which the Feast is dedicated to Mercy, we cannot NOT think of the desperate people who reach us by sea. And of the many bodies killed by the selfishness of those who only stand and watch. From Sicily comes an example for Europe which should be ashamed of itself for its apathy." the Mayor of Palermo said.
Click on the caption and scroll down to the video to watch her arrival in Mondello, a pretty little seaside town, now part of Palermo, where I lived for a year in 1986.
"In the year in which the Feast is dedicated to Mercy, we cannot NOT think of the desperate people who reach us by sea. And of the many bodies killed by the selfishness of those who only stand and watch. From Sicily comes an example for Europe which should be ashamed of itself for its apathy." the Mayor of Palermo said.
Click on the caption and scroll down to the video to watch her arrival in Mondello, a pretty little seaside town, now part of Palermo, where I lived for a year in 1986.