Bologna, August 11, 2026 – The video message from Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, on the fourth anniversary of the attack on Davide Ferrerio.
Today marks four years since Davide, just 20 years old, a Bolognese boy and huge Bologna fan, was brutally beaten on the street while on vacation in Crotone due to a tragic case of mistaken identity. That evening he was going to eat pizza with friends. Since that day he has lain in a hospital bed in an irreversible coma.
After the video made by Bologna (players and sports director) for Carlino, which also involved friends and relatives, here is now the message of closeness and affection from the Archbishop of Bologna and president of the CEI to Davide’s family: his father Massimiliano, mother Giusy, and brother Alessandro.
“A word of closeness. In these four long, very long years you have accompanied Davide with much affection and much suffering. And you have demanded justice, as it should be. And you have still looked ahead, as it should be. So that the past does not become a sentence. But, above all, you have protected Davide with much affection and care.”
“I also want to thank those who have cared for him over these years, in a condition where there is presence and absence. But there is much presence, which we always want to surround with affection. Painful, because we would like it to become full, but it helps us face something we obviously cannot accept.”
A warning for all acts of violence
“May this also be a warning, even for the ordinary, slippery episodes, as someone would say, of violence, of arrogance, of bullying, of calculation, of stupidity, of meanness whether small or great.” On the other hand, it should also be a warning “to always protect the gift of life, that breath that makes us feel presence and makes us feel immense tenderness.”
The blessing. “We have seen that we know how to work as a team. Even with Bologna”
“May the Lord bless you. And may there be much consolation also in faith and in the great solidarity of a city that welcomes and works as a team. I know how much Bologna has also been close to you, we must always learn that we can work as a team and that only together can we face adversities like this. Thank you.”
