Mateo’s memory is still alive, very much alive. The case of the 11-year-old boy, stabbed to death on August 18 at the Ángel Tardío sports center in Mocejón while playing football with his friends, shook and moved all of Spain. Today, more than two weeks later and while the confessed murderer is in the Segovia prison awaiting a forensic report to assess his imputability given his mental disability, His story reached Pope Francis.
It was during the long trip that the Sovereign Pontiff made to Jakarta (Indonesia), capital of a country with a Muslim majority where only 10% of its 275 million inhabitants are Christians.
Well, during this plane trip, a person took the opportunity to bring the Pope different gifts that had arrived. One of them was the jersey with which little Mateo usually played soccer.
“This is a shirt that will excite you,” the woman in charge of delivering the message from Mateo’s family to the Pope told him, who also explained that it came from “a child who was murdered a few days ago”. Alongside several cameramen and journalists who occupied a space as small as an airplane, this person asked him if he knew about the case, going on to explain that it had been a “very important moment in Spain” because “they accused immigrants of being perpetrators” and the family “wanted to make it” an opportunity “to leave hatred behind and stand up for refugees.”
Along with the shirt, the emissary also gave him a letter written by Mateo’s mother and he conveyed his wish: sign the shirt. Pope Francis not only agreed to grant this request, but he also immediately asked his staff members for a rosary to send to him.
Pope Francis receives the shirt of Mateo, the child murdered in Mocejón
The President of Castile-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, He is one of the hundreds of people who reacted to this video published on social networks by Eva Fernández, correspondent of the Cope network in the Holy See.
“There are images that speak directly to the heart” Page assured, in addition to “submitting the beautiful gesture of Pope Francis when he signed Mateo’s shirt, thus fulfilling his mother’s wish that this garment reach him.”
There are images that speak directly to the heart. I salute the beautiful gesture of Pope Francis when he signed Mateo’s shirt, thus fulfilling his mother’s wish that this garment reach him. My feelings continue to be towards the family.
– Emiliano García-Page (@garciapage) September 3, 2024
The president of Castilla-La Mancha took the opportunity to reiterate that “my feelings continue to be with the family.”
For his part, the mayor of Toledo, Carlos Velazquez also thanked the Holy Father”this gesture” and “the closeness and affection with Mateo’s family.
Thank you Holy Father for this gesture, and for the closeness and affection with Mateo’s family.
– Carlos Velázquez (@cvelazquezromo) September 3, 2024
hate messages
In addition to the tragedy of the murder, this case left a trail of hatred and racism. Especially in the hours following the murder, social networks were filled with messages linking the chapter to the presence of a group of unaccompanied minors (menas) in a hotel in Mocejón or to the Muslim community of the city, since there was a mosque in Mocejón, a place close to the scene of the murder.
The escalation reached such a point that Mateo’s cousin and family spokesman, Asell Sanchez, accused of having “blood on his hands” for having on his profiles photographs of several trips to Africa where he documented the pastoral work of missionaries for the Trece TV program in which he works. The reason was none other than to ask that no one be criminalized because of “their race or skin color.”
This case has even reached the Castilla-La Mancha prosecutor’s office thanks to the complaint filed by Izquierda Unida, which directly points to around twenty profiles, both public and anonymous, including that of the European deputy Alvise Pérez and a Vox advisor in Terrassa (Barcelona).
