Consistory. Scalbrini and Zatti saints. October 9 is the date of the canonizations

Scalabrini, the bishop on the side of migrants

On the 25th anniversary of the beatification, the dream of the missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo of seeing the founder canonized, a model of shepherd with the smell of sheep, attentive to the social problems of his time, who knew how to read with intelligence, comes true. of faith. The process for the recognition of holiness is similar to that followed for John XXIII, that is the formal ceremony with dispensation of the second miracle. And, due to the strange intersections of Providence, it was the future John XXIII, then a young secretary in Bergamo of the bishop of Piacenza Radini Tedeschi, who hoped that “the dust on Scalabrini’s hollow had disappeared”. The reference is to the accusations that some detractors had made against him by virtue of the openness to the social and even political commitment of Catholics that he encouraged, while the “Non Expedit” (the prohibition to Catholics from participating in the national political life of Italy imposed by the Church). Yet Scalabrini was anything but a revolutionary. Only, he did not conceive of the Christian locked in the sacristy. A conviction that came to him from his profound spirituality of the Incarnation: if the Son of God became man and died and rose again for everyone, every man and woman enjoys the same dignity and should be treated as such.

He saw many attacks on dignity, in that passage between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He had become aware of migrations by visiting the parishes of the Apennines. The decisive illumination was at the Milan station, observing a crowd of all ages massed on the platforms. As it was in his style, he wanted to enter into the phenomenon to understand the reasons, the dangers, the implications. He denounced the “human flesh brokers” who exploited these people, created missionaries and missionaries to serve migrants. In Italy, while socialism was expanding, and with it anti-Christian propaganda, it worked for the workers: working hours, hygienic conditions, health care, social security. He took care of the mondariso and the deaf and dumb. He promoted the Catholic press in the diocese (the weekly “Il Nuovo Giornale” has its secretary and first biographer as its founder). When he was parish priest of San Bartolomeo in Como he had written a catechism for children; in Piacenza, a pioneer in Italy, he hosted the European catechetical congress.

“Making the world the homeland of man”, without canceling the roots: the path traced by Scalabrini still challenges society as well as the Church. The pilgrims of all nationalities who stop in front of his urn in the Cathedral of Piacenza are proof of this.

Zatti, the lay Salesian support of the suffering

«Artemide Zatti lived both the experience of the migrant and that of illness, witnessing in them the saving power of Easter and that joy which characterizes Don Bosco’s style and which permeates the whole Salesian family to which he was a part. He is a particularly topical model of holiness in these times marked by the pandemic and in which many are forced to abandon their homelands and for this reason his canonization will be a celebration for many “. Thus Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Salesian, postulator general expresses his satisfaction at the imminent canonization of Zatti, a professed lay person of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco (coadjutor) whose date was announced yesterday during the Consistory after last April was the decree on the miracle was promulgated: the healing in the Philippines in August 2016 of a man suffering from an ischemic stroke with serious complications. A new saint “close to the suffering and not only – continues Cameroni – because he spent his life for them, but because he lived the experience of the disease on himself, developing an extraordinary sensitivity towards the sick and never losing hope and joy ». Born on 12 October 1880 in Boretto (Reggio Emilia), he immediately knew the hardships of poverty which forced his family to emigrate to Argentina, in Bahìa Blanca, where he began to frequent the parish led by the Salesians. Accepted as an aspirant by Monsignor Giovanni Cagliero, he entered Bernal’s house where he was entrusted with the task of assisting a young priest sick with tuberculosis. Zatti also contracted the disease and for this he was sent to the hospital of San José in Viedma where he was followed by Father Evasio Garrone. «Together with him, he asked and obtained from Mary Help of Christians – explains Don Cameroni – the grace of healing with the promise, on his part, to dedicate his whole life to the care of the sick. He healed and kept his promise. In 1911 he made his perpetual profession. First he began to take care of the pharmacy annexed to the hospital. Later, he had total responsibility for the hospital, which became the gymnasium of his holiness: as a good Samaritan, he welcomed the poor, the infirm, the rejected from society. In each of them he visited Christ, he healed Christ, he fed Christ, he clothed Christ, he hosted Christ, he honored Christ ». Struck by cancer, he died on March 15, 1951 and John Paul II proclaimed him blessed on April 14, 2002. To celebrate the canonization many countrymen of his native country where his memory is alive, the Argentines where his reputation for holiness is is rapidly spreading, as does the whole Salesian Family and in particular the brothers who have their first saint in Zatti: “The canonization of Blessed Artemide Zatti, Salesian Brother – concludes Fr Cameroni – tells us the beauty of consecrated life and the value of a life entirely dedicated to God in the service of the poor with the apostolic heart of Don Bosco. It is a strong impulse to promote the vocation of the Salesian brother, who brings to all educational and pastoral fields the proper value of his laity, which makes him specifically a witness of the Kingdom of God in the world “.

Federica Bello