Page 20 - Salesian Bulletin 2014 [01] January-March

THE SALESIAN WHO BAPTISED JORGE BERGOGLIO
The Italian daily Il Cittadino has unearthed the story of Fr Enrico Pozzoli, a Salesian missionary from the province of Lodi who baptised young Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is today Pope Francis.
that among the faithful entrusted to his care there would have been a future Pope as well and that his seed would have borne such illustrious fruit. Not only did he bring forth the faith in the future Pope Francis, but he also accompanied him as he grew as a Christian and was his spiritual father until he reached the age of 17, when his priestly vocation blos- somed,” Il Cittadino reported.
In his acceptance speech, the Archbishop stressed “the impor- tance of communicating what is good (the Good News) in a cultural- ly attractive manner precisely in the current context of negative, aggres- sive and confrontational climate... The Christian message can be com- municated meaningfully only if we reveal the ‘human face’ of Christ continuously”.
The newspaper published an account of various episodes in the life of Bergoglio, including his bap- tism, which occurred on Christmas night at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians and Saint Carlos in Buenos Aires.
—Report by Deacon Greg Kandra, NY.
Fr Pozzoli lived in Argentina from 1906 until his death in 1961. He was born in 1880 in Senna Lodigiana, an Italian town near the Po River. He left Italy as a young priest to
studied English in Crumlin one summer in the 1980s.
work in South America.
“He would have never imagined
Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati received an honorary doctorate in Missiology, 14 November, from the Pontifical Urbaniana University , Rome, for his remarkable contribu- tion to missionary praxis in the mis- sion territories of India, and his lead- ership in the field of evangelization in the Asian continent.
ARCHBISHOP HONOURED
According to Il Cittadino, Fr Pozzoli was a “very important fig- ure and model of priestly life” for Pope Francis, so much so that in 1982, the future Pontiff remembered him in the prologue for his “Meditations for Religious” as “an example of ecclesial service and reli- gious consecration,” underscoring “the great influence he had on his life.”
BRO. GUERRINO PERA DIES
Professor Gerald H. Anderson, Director Emeritus of the Overseas Ministries Study Centre in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and for- mer Academic Dean and Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines were also honoured.
In a letter he wrote on 20 October 1990, to Salesian Fr Cayetano Bruno, Pope Francis explained his relation- ship with the missionary priest: “Today is the 29th anniversary of the death of Fr Enrico Pozzoli, and I just celebrated Mass for the priest who baptised me on 25 December 1936.”
Bro. Guerrino Pera, the artist of many Salesian catechetical picture series, died on 1 November 2013, All Saints Day, in Turin (Italy). His funeral was held at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, in Valdocco. From India, the Don Bosco Catechetical Centre (Kolkata) paid glowing tribute to “this magnificent Salesian, enthusiastic evangelist and catechist for images,” who was associated with it since it began in 1977. Guerrino
Reflecting on his work in estab- lishing peace in situations of conflict and among warring groups in India, and more particularly in the North Eastern States, for more than four decades, Mgr Menamparampil said, “While intellectual bridges will have to be built in communicating the message of the Gospel, the emotion- al bridges are of greater impor- tance.”
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