Michele Ferri is the brother of 51-year-old Andrea, a petrol station manager who was allegedly gunned down by two men including one young employee he treated like a son.
The death shocked the north-eastern town of Pesaro.
Michele Ferri wrote a letter to the Pope telling him of his inability to forgive the killers and was shocked when he picked up the telephone on Wednesday evening to hear: "Ciao Michele, it's Pope Francis."
I love how he picks up the phone himself, and calls him.
I predict the pope will get an avalanche of mail now.
I think the bishops of the world might take a lesson from that.
One of the things that bugs me about the Church is that the bishops and the priests don't know their flock.
And they should.
Now I know my parish priest reasonably well, and he knows my family. I invited him over to bless my house when I moved in some years ago. He also organized parish dinners and everyone knows us because my family of four girls is so conspicuous.
But I've been in a number of parishes where the priest didn't know me from Adam. And they seemed to busy to bother with anyone who wasn't in their social justice demographic-- very poor, very elderly, very...something.
And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I wanted to know them or they wanted to know me, seeing as they were dissident and I'm orthodox.
And I've met Archbishop Terry a couple of times, but at least he has a bit of an excuse, seeing as he has tens of thousands of souls under his care. Still, there are
We got to work on that dynamic.
