Montaldo Torinese (Italy). On Sunday, 17 November 2024 in Montaldo Torinese, Piedmont, the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Beatification of Sister Maddalena Morano, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, which took place on 5 November 1994, in Catania.
The event was celebrated within the framework of the friendship pact signed by the Municipalities of Alì Terme, where the remains of the Blessed rest, and Montaldo Torinese, where the young Maddalena worked as a teacher for 12 years.
On 5 November 2024, the day of the 30th anniversary, at Saint Agatha Parish in the Borgo di Catania, Sicily, there was the solemn Eucharistic Celebration presided by Archbishop Mons. Luigi Renna, with the presence of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, in Visit to the ISI Province.
The journey of approaching Piedmont – in particular the territory of Chieri, birthplace of the Blessed, which also includes Montaldo – to Sicily, began in 2015, the year of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco, when among the various events was imagined a twinning between Chieri and Alì Terme that took shape in 2018, making this request official from the Sicilian Municipality to the Municipality of Chieri.
The Piedmontese interlocutor was then the mayor Claudio Martano, who suggested to put in some shared initiative to start the journey. So, here the young students of the Professional Center of C.I.O.F.S. – F.P. of the Institute Saint Teresa of Chieri, of Mary Help of Christians Province (IPI), went in July 2019, on the foot prints of Morano to Ali Terme, to make friends with the young people of the South in the name of the Blessed. It was then reciprocated in December of the same year with a visit of the youth of the oratory aliese and an educative round table in the town of Chieri.
In the meantime, Montaldo Torinese was also involved and numerous events took place the dedication of the Plaza in front of the town hall, the visit between the Municipal Councils of the two towns, a video-interview on the Blessed, and at the end the signature of the pact of friendship between Alì terme and Montaldo Torinese, on 26 March 2023, first symbolically in front of the urn of Mary Help of Christians Sanctuary of the Sicilian town and then with an official resolution.
The purpose of these initiatives was and is to make known and appreciated the woman and educator Saint who lived first as a citizen of a town in northern Italy and then, sent by religious obedience to Sicily, as an inhabitant of her ‘homeland of the heart’.
The events of 17 November touched the hearts of the many participants, first of all the Vicar General of the FMA Institute, Sister Maria del Rosario García Ribas; the Provincial of the Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta Province, Sister Emma Bergandi; of the various FMA present, of the Montalese population and friends of Alì Terme, led by Sister Mariella Lo Turco, biographer of Mother Morano.
After the Eucharistic Celebration in the Parish of Santi Vittore e Corona, presided by the Provincial Vicar of the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Special District of Piedmont and Valle D’Aosta, Fr. Michele Molinar, a round table was held, “Mother Maddalena Morano, woman in the network open to the future”, opened by the official greetings of the Institutions, with the presence of Mayors Sergio Gaiotti (Montaldo Torinese) and Tommaso Micalizzi (Alì Terme), Mayor Emeritus of Alì Terme, Carlo Giaquinta, who wanted to emphasize continuity with the current municipal administration, and Piedmont Region Councilor Silvio Magliano, who emphasized the educational aspect of the event:
“The story and the example of Mother Maddalena remind us how young people need role models to imitate and not just rules to observe. This Mother Maddalena and Salesian educators knew and know perfectly well, now as then. A lesson not to be overlooked especially today, a sensitive time for young people and in which there is so much talk about educational issues and the rights and duties of citizenship. I believe that in addition to role models, young people need the family: the latter is responsible for education; society and institutions, on the other hand, have the duty to accompany and not leave parents alone. This deep interconnection between society, institutions, families and children, which was and is clear to Mother Maddalena, must become clear to all of us as well.”
Afterwards, Sister Maria del Rosario García Ribas, Sister Mariella Lo Turco, Prof. Valeria Martano, President of the Association VITA – Vivere il Tumore Attivamente, and Sister Monica Roncari, of the IPI Province, spoke, outlining the figure of the Blessed from different points of view and retracing the journey so far. The Mayor of Chieri, Alessandro Sicchiero, also wanted to assure the interest around the figure of Mother Morano, who was born in his city.
In her speech, Sister Maria del Rosario encouraged to continue to believe in education, following the example of Mother Morano:
“Her secret? The primacy of love and goodness. In her we recognize embodied the educational power of love; a love that educates, that cares, that becomes concrete, that involves, that travels the streets to seek out especially the most disadvantaged among the working class, to offer a helping hand.
Even today, Maddalena Morano repeats to us, as she often did, ‘enlarge your heart to hope’. This means, among many other things, believing in education, that education that touches the heart and transforms it in depth.
We believe in education! Today, following his example, 30 years after his Beatification, we confirm together the value of forming people willing to put themselves at the service of the community, citizens in solidarity, capable of making the ‘culture of encounter’ an alternative response to the clash of civilizations that we often experience in these times.
We know it is not easy, but today we say to each other, ‘Courage in your commitment to good: whatever it takes,’ as our dear Mother Morano also repeated. Education is a privileged path of citizenship, let us walk it together. In Maddalena Morano’s footsteps, as a network, let us focus on educational love to generate a future of peace and good in young people, in our territory and in the whole earth.”
As part of the friendship pact between the two municipalities, the Mayor of Montaldo Torinese presented the Vicar General with a plaque commemorating the event.
Two shows were the setting of the event. On the evening of 16 November, at the Polisportivo Montaldese Club, the festive choir “Gli alunni del cielo” performed in a concert-prayer. They gave the audience the ten gazes at the sky that Maddalena Morano spoke of and, it concluded on Sunday 17, with the performance of two young guitarists of the State Conservatory of Music “G. Verdi”.
The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the beatification of Mother Morano opened everyone’s hearts to hope, just as she desired.
