“Saint Paul is not a comrade.” Eleven priests from the Fondazione Interesse Uomo, which operates between Basilicata and Sicily, write this to Roberto Vannacci who, at the beginning of August, when talking about subsidies for migrants, had quoted “comrade Saint Paul: whoever does not work, neither shall he eat.” The priests are right: Paul of Tarsus did not march, at most he fell from a horse. The quote is exact, and it pleased Lenin so much that it ended up in the constitution of Bolshevik Russia in 1918. Some still attribute it to him. In 1970 Adriano Celentano brought it to Sanremo: whoever does not work does not make love. Comrade for the general, comrade for the Bolsheviks, bouncing on stage: poor Saint Paul, enlisted by everyone, he who only let himself be enlisted by One greater. And he was beheaded by power, he certainly did not walk arm in arm with it. His words were a fraternal call in a community that broke bread together, not a welfare program. If you really want to quote him, we suggest the hymn to charity: that is what is truly missing, in rallies and elsewhere. But loving is more difficult than criticizing.
San Paolo dormitory | Libero Quotidiano.it
