ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 13th of October
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BLESSED GIOVANNI REMO FORNASINI, PRIEST
Born on February 23, 1915, Bl. Giovanni was ordained a priest on June 28, 1942 and installed as parish priest in Sperticano on September 27.
His pastoral work began during a turbulent time for Italy during World War II. He opened a school similar to the one he himself had attended as a boy in Porretta. Don Lino Cattoi, who had been his fellow student, said of his time in Sperticano, "He seemed always to be running. He was always around trying to free people from their difficulties, and to solve their problems. He had no fear. He was a man of great faith, and was never shaken."
On July 25, 1943, Italian dictator Mussolini was overthrown. Fornasini ordered his church bells to be rung in celebration.
Bologna was a city of strategic military importance during World War II. It was heavily bombed by the Allies three times during 1943. On 3 September, the Kingdom of Italy signed an armistice with the Allies; but the north of Italy, including Bologna, was still under German control. Accounts of Fornasini's pastoral activities during that time are incomplete. It has been said that his chief characteristic was that he was everywhere. After at least one of those bombings, he gave shelter to survivors in his rectory.
Riding his bicycle, he gave assistance in nearby parishes, including San Cristoforo di Vedegheto, whose priest had had to retire for health reasons. After the bombing of the Reno neighbourhood of Bologna on November 27, he was to be seen everywhere, smiling and comforting people in distress. Don Serra said: "On the sad day of November 27, 1943, when 46 of my parishioners were killed in Lama di Reno by Allied bombs, I remember Don Giovanni working as hard in the rubble with his pickaxe as if he had been trying to rescue his own mother."
Accounts of the last few months of Bl. Giovanni's life differ in detail. On July 30, a train loaded with fuel blew up. Two German soldiers died, and the Germans took twenty Italians as hostages. Bl. Giovanni gathered evidence which persuaded the Germans that the explosion had been an accident and the hostages were released. He then convinced the Germans that several other acts of sabotage had been committed by Tuscan partisans, and that local people had not been involved. This saved many lives.
Bl. Giovanni died on October 13, 1944. The circumstances of his death are shrouded in mystery. On May 18, 1945, Don Amadeo said that a Nazi officer had given Bl. Giovanni permission to bury the dead at San Martino del Sole, Marzabotto, on October 13, 1944, but that he had been cynically murdered there; that his body was identified on October 14; and that he had been shot in the chest.
Information from Wikipedia
PRAYER:
May the intercession of Blessed Giovanni commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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