Don Lorenzo's Milan's byword "I care"
should be a watchword against indifference, President Sergio
Mattarella said in marking the centenary of the great educator's
birth at the site of his school for poor children at Barbiana
near Florence on Saturday.
Mattarella said the slogan, which was famously picked up by
former centre left leader and Rome mayor Walter Veltroni and
others, "has become a universal motto.
"A motto of those who refuse selfishness and indifference. He
accompanied that expression with another one. He used to say:
'As long as there is hard work, there is hope'.
"Society, without the hard work of commitment, doe snot get
better. A commitment accompanied by the faith that lights up the
path of those who want to really build. And he trod a real path
of construction."
Mattarella called Milani, who died in 1967 aged 54 after a
lifetime spent educating the children of poor labourers, "was a
great Italian who, with his example, invited us to practise
active responsibility".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
