Bologna e Resia: 50 anni dopo il terremoto

12PORTE - June 25, 2026: (Images by Gianni Ragno). Fifty years after the Friuli earthquake, about fifty volunteers from Bologna returned to the Resia Valley to reconnect with a community that has never forgotten the twinning that began in 1976. They were joined by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who presided over the Eucharist in the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, accompanied by the evocative melodies of the traditional Patriarchal chant, a legacy of the Aquileian liturgy. After the earthquake, the Church of Bologna responded to Archbishop Alfredo Battisti's appeal by sending young volunteers and priests to the Resia Valley. From that experience, "Operazione Casette" (Little Houses) was born, which allowed the construction of 46 homes for families affected by the earthquake. Many are still preserved as a sign of a friendship that endures over time. In his homily, Cardinal Zuppi highlighted the deeper meaning of this memory: "Remembering is not nostalgia, but thanksgiving." The earthquake thus becomes a lesson for addressing the fractures of the present. "We must learn to rebuild a world full of divisions and earthquakes." Commenting on the Gospel, he defined compassion as "the twinning of the heart": that force that transforms strangers into brothers, because "evil destroys, but love heals." And he recognized that the Church of Bologna "has received much more than it has given." Resia was not just a few houses, but a more missionary-minded Church. This was commemorated by the donation of Professor Edgardo Monari's archive to the Municipality and the testimony of Carlo Soglia, who later left for Tanzania with Father Tarcisio Nardelli, starting the diocesan mission of Usokami. From that same experience, the association "Solidarity and Cooperation Without Borders" was also born. The twinning between Bologna and Resia thus continues to tell a story in which solidarity did not stop at the emergency, but became a Church style, capable of generating communion, mission, and a future. It's no coincidence that the Friuli TGR also dedicated two television reports to these intense days of remembrance and fraternity.