Át Anton Harapi
“Why I agreed to become Regent”
A speech by the great Franciscan reveals all his ideas and why he accepted that political position during the war, a position that in the years of dictatorship was called treason...
“...I could not see Albania in anarchy. In this time and under these circumstances, for us Albanians anarchy is a shame and a crime: yes, it is shameful to get mixed up with one another and ourselves create the Albanian Babylon, without being able to find the thread of the tangle; it is a crime at this critical moment for the whole world to dream of fratricide as an ideal, the destruction of villages, the loss of families and their ruin. — So I felt sorry for the people and I felt sorry for Albania..."
BY AT VITOR DEMAJ, OFM
Great people always remain a “light” that “illuminates” our mind, our soul, even though “small” people rush against them out of envy and jealousy in order to cast them into the abyss of oblivion. They remain true idealists who invite us to walk at least once along the stone-paved streets in order to grasp the thought and history of every people, of each one of us. A “light” was and is Át Anton Harapi, together with his “illuminating” and guiding generation along paths never before trodden. Even though they were “light” and “illuminators,” they fell victim to the “darkness,” together with their students, because they lived and acted for an Albania different from the one that came later. Their life and writings enlighten us as never before, we who need their thought in the face of our decline, because today we live according to opinions and not according to ideals. That is why great people are needed to guide us along our path, in shaping our mentality and our ideals, in organizing our personal and social life. After the fall of communism in Albania, there began a reassessment of those personalities who had done everything, through hard work and sweat, knowledge and culture, life and sacrifices, for the mental and moral development of the people ...
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