With the LEV, Don Tonino Bello’s spirituality makes a stop in Puglia

The bishop of Molfetta, Monsignor Domenico Cornacchia, recounts the tour already carried out in Northern Italy to present the volume “Witness and teacher of virtue” published by the Vatican Publishing House and announces the next appointments in the key places of the venerable’s life: “He surprised me that many young people know this figure in depth “

Eugenio Bonanata and Giovanni Orsenigo – Vatican City

The presentation path that the Vatican Publishing House organized on the occasion of the release of Witness and teacher of virtue, the volume on the Christian journey of Don Tonino Bello written by the bishop of Molfetta-Ruvo-Giovinazzo-Terlizzi, Monsignor Domenico Cornacchia. “I was surprised by the very thorough knowledge of the young people”, says the prelate, “someone told me that they had read everything that Don Tonino wrote”.

In the emblematic places of Don Tonino Bello

Passing through Rome after the stops in Correggio (in the province of Reggio Emilia), Bolzano, Lecco and Verona, Monsignor Cornacchia announces that the tour will move to Puglia: “We will visit some emblematic places of Don Tonino’s priestly and episcopal life”. The prelate presented the program which will take place from 21 to 23 May. Three meetings are scheduled: in Alessano, in the province of Lecce, the birthplace of the Venerable; Bari, the regional capital; and Molfetta, where he lived his ministry as bishop from 1982 to 1993.

Monsignor Cornacchia, at the head of the same diocese since 2016, confides the reason that prompted him to write the book: “Usually this great bishop is cited, as a social promoter, an animator, etc., but his vocation has deep spiritual roots”. And it is precisely in this dimension that the author places his hopes for the initiative: “I hope that those who read this book will fall in love even more with what Don Tonino witnessed for the poor, for hospitality, for peace , for prayer “.

Listen to the full interview with Monsignor Cornacchia

Don Tonino and his “unpublished”

But what is it that makes this figure so relevant? “Certainly the affability, the loving kindness and the joy that he managed to let out from every gesture”, replies the bishop of Molfetta, who is keen to reiterate that Don Tonino was fundamentally a man of prayer. So much so that “he repeated that one must be contemplative: with two ‘t’, explaining that action, like that for peace, comes from contemplation “.

Monsignor Cornacchia personally knew his predecessor. And he tells us “an unpublished episode” in his biography which confirms this trait. Three or four times a week, Don Tonino used to retire in prayer inside the Cathedral of Molfetta from lunchtime until the afternoon. “He asked the sacristan Tanella, still alive, to close the doors. And when the woman asked him how he could eat, she replied: ‘I let him invite me’, pointing to the Tabernacle ”.

The Pope too appreciates the testimony of Don Tonino, as evidenced by the quotation during the homily of the Mass for the Fifth World Day of the Poor. “He certainly read some of his works”, points out Monsignor Cornacchia who reveals a detail dating back to the apostolic trip to Peru, in 2018, a few months before the visit to Molfetta. “On the bedside table, next to his bed, Francesco had the book by Don Tonino Bello entitled Mary woman of our day“.

With the LEV, Don Tonino Bello’s spirituality makes a stop in Puglia – Vatican News