There can be no room for silence in
fighting violence against women, said Treviso bishop Michele
Tomasi at the funeral of Vanessa Ballan, the 26-year-old
pregnant woman who was stabbed to death outside her home in the
province of Treviso town of Altivole on December 19, on Friday.
The bishop invited mourners gathered at Castelfranco cathedral,
including Ballan's partner Nicola Scapinello, to "the silence of
prayer that invokes the consolation of victims and the
conversion of the violent" but "not in the search for justice".
There is no place for silence "in the commitment to a
civilisation that rejects violence against women in word and
deed, and is finally able to overcome the madness of wanting to
possess a person, or of wanting to use violence to determine
their choices and decisions", said Tomasi.
The bishop described the femicide as being beyond "any even
pessimistic forecast" and added that "there is no meaning in her
brutal killing".
Ballan, who was also the mother of a four-year-old boy, was
murdered with seven knife blows.
A 41-year-old Kosovo national, Bujar Fandaj, has been arrested
on suspicion of the murder.
The victim had recently reported Fandaj to the police for
stalking, but no precautionary action was taken.
Veneto regional governor Luca Zaia attended the funeral and
proclaimed Friday a day of regional mourning, as he did on the
day of the funeral of another veneto femicide victim, Giulia
Cecchettin, in December.
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