The capital city with just under 700,000 people in the city and over 1.2 million in the metropolitan area. It feels like a capital city with a far greater diversity than we have seen before, life on the streets and back alleys. We have greatly enjoyed our time here and move on tomorrow.
It has been and continues to be the stronghold of the mafia (Cosa Nostra – ‘our thing’) with CNN reporting concerning Palermo,
According to Italian police, the Mafia not only engages in extortion there, but also has a large role in the town’s legal economy—with its involvement in business such as wholesale food supplies, online betting and gambling.
More on the mafia a little later.
We sense that Palermo lives with an open wound, so life is very visible abounding but it would be so much healthier with healing of that wound. It is easy to idealise the past and histories are often written with a bias (an aside: consider Scripture and the difference between Chronicles and the earlier book of the kings). When we spent a year seeking to close the wound in Spain of the horrendous expulsion of the Muslims (early 1600s) we were very aware of the term ‘convivencia’ that was used to describe the era of the Islamic rule in Spain – that Jews, Muslims and Christians were able to live together with significant harmony between them, until the change to the ‘Christian kings and queens’!!! 1492 the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews, and the ‘discovery’ (rape) of the new world. Quite a threesome in one year.
Maybe ‘convivencia’ is overstated but there were significant historical documents and stories to indicate that there was more than some truth in the description. Something similar was present in Sicily during the Arabic rule. That is deeply provocative and so it should be for any follower of Jesus whose birth was announced with ‘peace on earth’. Rome of course was announcing the same thing and ironically built her temple to Pax (goddess of peace) on Mars field – dedicated to the god of war. Ironic? Or very visible. Empire have always built their peace on the battlefield.
Palermo is the most multi-ethnic city we have been in while being in Sicily. Many current social and historical commentators proclaim Europe’s multi-culturalism as a failure and the way forward as necessitating white supremacy and ‘Christian’ domination. (I have used the term ‘white supremacy’ acknowledging that is my interpretation of what is being strongly proposed.) Yes that would be one way… but the ‘Jesus way’?
Back to the mafia. There is a ‘No Mafia Memorial’ museum on one of the main streets with displays of brutal photos and a video. We have been in and through it twice. The first time to learn but the reality is that the brutality makes it visible, and the museum is (by default) holding death in the place. Gayle had a pretty much sleepless night processing and praying. We visited the second time yesterday to pray – I don’t think the wound is closed but hopefully a contribution to that end. ‘Lest we forget’ is an understandable response to horrors of war and of murders, and we have to remember but memory can hold something ‘alive’ so that repetition becomes almost inevitable. God in Isaiah says ‘remember… and forget for I do a new thing’ (my paraphrase / summary of Isaiah 43). Remember and forget so that we can embrace what is to come. Don’t forget but don’t remember in a way that closes the future down.
Just down the road from the museum is an obelisk. Historically the obelisk was something the Egyptians erected to honour the sun god. At the feet of it were sacrificed prisoners of war that drew the power of the sun god into the obelisk and therefore ‘blessed’ the people making the sacrifices. (Is it any surprise that many war memorials are obelisks in the western world?)
The obelisk is in honour of the martyrs of 1866 (Post-Garibaldi’s conquest of 1860). In that year there was a significant uprising as a result of widespread disappointment in the unification (and coinciding with a major outbreak of cholera in the city that claimed many lives). The result was 40,000 government troops were sent to put the rebellion down. Widespread killing and arrests resulted as ‘order'(!) was restored.
As part of the Second World War the entrance to Italy was via Sicily and in Palermo 40% of the housing was destroyed with huge loss of life of civilians. (This advance through Sicily also strengthened the position of the mafia.)
Palermo… a city with an open wound, where blood (and blood pollutes the land) has been spilled repeatedly is described as ‘the most culturally diverse city in Italy’. It had a past that I am sure was far from perfect that manifested some measure of ‘convivencia’ (could we say ‘partial-shalom’?).
The three monotheistic (and Abrahamic) faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been and are at loggerheads with each other. This is so deep in our European (and now global) history. Into the mix of those faiths we have to see a presence of Jesus-aligned-followers as yeast that leavens everything. In the ‘war book’ of Revelation we ‘know’ we will win as the ‘lion’ has overcome… but John sees a Lamb, and after that there are no more mentions of the Lion, but the Lamb comes 28 times – and John loves his numbers, he records 28 cargoes travelling to Rome on the ships. The Lamb for all, the cargoes (including human lives) for the empire.
A wound. Trauma. Palestine and Israel – two open wounds and great trauma. The imperial answer is to crush difference and impose one culture, suppressing all difference. The Jesus answer is in the totally different direction.
Could Sicily / Italy / Europe find a way to ‘partial-shalom’? That has always been the challenge for those who claim to be followers of Jesus for to them has been given the service of reconciliation.
Ever hopeful.
I remember more than 20 years ago while learning to be a landscape architect that one of the other students wanted desperately to go to Palermo. Why? No idea. It was a time when the Mafia was killing judges. So I saw no reason to visit.
Palermo sounds like a conflicted space and place. One that with a nudge could go either direction – be a blessing or a curse for its inhabitants. Because the conflict is unresolved, it presents a mix. All places have some conflict due their histories but some places just seem to have more.
It would be lovely if Palermo could experience some healing. It would be interesting to see what that would look like.
A nudge indeed would be wonderful – and maybe all it needs? Certainly the likes of us can do no more than nudge.