Don Fernando Manna arrives at Guardialfiera on the Solemnity of Christ the King, on November 21, 2021, with the only commitment to celebrate Mass at 10.30, to replace Don Antonio Antenucci, who was attacked that morning by incipient exhaustion. But the fleeting indisposition, in the exile parish priest, is transformed impetuously into a degenerative pluri-pathology, such as to annihilate him and lead him, last May 16, to the full contemplation of God in whom he believed, loved and served. So Don Fernando is still here, since that November 21st. And now, here, he can celebrate on 21 September, on the 42nd anniversary of his priestly ordination. And he can thank from here and magnify the High and Eternal Priest, with a sober liturgy, and with an essential group of faithful and acquaintances. It is sweet for me, today, to redraw it as it was 42 years ago, when I had the good fortune to meet him in Palata. He had completed the theological path and was a deacon. It came to Don Elio who was celebrating the tenth anniversary of his priesthood; but he too came to take a look at the systems of the “RTN”, the Palata Nova radio, one of the first free and Christian stations existing in the area. And Don Elio, at a certain point, puts him aside, describing him as a “young man of faith, reason, courage”. In that distant time, Fernando was already carrying a personal computer and the breviary! An Innovator cleric, that is, of media technology and a model of lively spirituality. And because he is infatuated with the mass media, the parish priest of Palata sneaks him with me into the modest recording and broadcasting room, located in the basement of the Franciscan Sisters. Wiring in there was Domenico Vitulli – the technician – capable of doing stunts, albeit in the absence of decent equipment. But Fernando, impressed by the scarce human resources, takes an instant tip: . And Don Elio listens to him and approves him; and, visibly festive, he then alludes to the “Mischiatutto”: that cocktail of culture, customs, songs, sport, humor, current affairs. An exquisite live broadcast of the “RPN” – continues the parish priest – also replicated by Radio-Campobasso, conceived, written and conducted by him (… turning to me) by him and by the confident and affable voice of Paoletta, his daughter> , then just over fourteen. Fernando (in those days still without the “don”) is happy to stay in our house in the evening to talk with us, on the young people, on the school fields, on the desire to leave as a missionary in Africa and on his imminent ordination. It will be the third “laying on of hands” officiated by Msgr. Cosmo Francesco Ruppi, set for the afternoon of Sunday 21 September, in the Piazza in Montorio nei Frentani, his birthplace. Carolina even touches the desire to give him a Alb, modeled with double pleats and made according to the characteristic of Sister Alfonsina Lo Zopone, at that time Mother Superior of the disciples of Eucharistic Jesus in Guardialfiera. And he agrees. Still smelling of chrism, Don Fernando gathers the “Clan” Casacanditella in Guglionesi and holds them in meditation and impromptuness. November 9: the three priests constituted in 1980 will be together in the parish church of Palata to concelebrate and express, with an embrace of peace, the freshness and richness of the Spirit acquired through the Sacrament of Orders. Don Fernando, a man of action, wanders, travels, stops to dispense and fertilize faith, reason, courage and all his pastoral ministry in diverse communities of the Diocese: in Santa Croce, Colletorto, San Giuliano, Montorio, Montelongo, Rotello, Ururi . Pieces of reality that, in more than four decades, tell, in a harmonious mosaic, the extraordinary ability of a priest with whom it is pleasant to talk and pray, and the time has come to stay at Guardialfiera, with him. And the whole community, on the happy anniversary of his consecration, asks God to make him again an instrument of his action and to multiply the joyful experience of the gift received.
