One of the more uncomfortable homilies I can remember included a paean to the “heroic silence” of St Maria Goretti in the face of prolonged sexual harassment by her eventual murderer, Alessandro Serenelli. Maria’s silence, for the homilist, evoked that of Christ during his trials and passion — a connection he meant to be inspiring. It made my skin crawl.
The Gorettis and the Serenellis were poor peasant families sharing a duplex in rural south-central Italy provided by a nobleman for whom both families worked as sharecroppers. Alessandro was a dissolute young man, and Maria was the nearest vulnerable target. For months he harassed her in private with lewd comments and eventually sexual advances, which she rejected but kept secret.
