Concesio (Italy). From 21 to 30 September 2024 in Concesio, Brescia, birthplace of Saint Paul VI, the 25th Montinian Week was held, an annual event centered around the dates of 26th of September, the day on which the future Pope, Giovanni Battista Montini (1897) was born, and the 30th of September, the day on which he was baptized.
During the week, citizens and parishioners of Concesio were able to participate in various celebratory events, realized in synergy between parish, municipality, and Paul VI Institute to study the Pope’s evangelical style and let it resonate in view of the future journey as Church and as civil society.
The Daughters of Mary Auxiliary of Mary Mother of the Church Preprovince (RMC), since 2009, has been given custody of the House of Paul VI, where Giovanni Battista Montini was born, with the mission of welcoming pilgrims who present themselves, either in organized form with a reservation, or in spontaneous form, ringing the bell of the house of his birth according to the opening hours. Not far from the house is the Paul VI Collection Museum, run by a non-profit organization. (https://www.concesiopaolovi.it/)
This year, the event was in line with the 60th anniversary of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Saint Paul VI, the first Pope after St. Peter to return to the Holy Land, and his encounter with the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I. (poster)
The embrace between Paul VI and Athenagoras I, on 5 January 1964, entered into history. It was since 1054, after the mutual excommunication between the Church of the East and that of the West that the two Churches had not spoken under the banner of dialogue, of forgiveness, and the desire to start again something that had been interrupted. Following this encounter, the now almost millenary mutual excommunication between the two Churches was then lifted.
On 21 September, the Montinian Week opened at Paul VI Auditorium with the presentation of the “Paul VI Civiltà dell’amore” (Civilization of love) Award by the parish priest, Mons. Fabio Peli and the Mayor of Concesio, Agostino Damiolini, to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, in the presence of civil and ecclesiastical authorities and with the participation of the population.
His testimony was touching. It is striking how in the Cardinal, a tenacious hope persists, despite the dramas that live in the Holy Land. “In the Holy Land we are living a long night, but fortunately we know that even the darkest nights end. Hope is the child of faith, and we are confident in this. As a Church, we will never tire of working with those who desire peace. It will certainly take time, a long time, but peace will come,” he said.
The Cardinal said that the war that broke out on Saturday, 7 October 2023 in Israel, was called the Succot War. Succot is the feast of the huts, in which the Jews thank God for the harvest of fruits and ask God for the gift of rain. It was a terrorist act by Hamas – a terrorist group in the Gaza strip – unprecedented for its speed and cruelty, which is why the Hamas rebels call it “the al-Aqsa flood”. The Cardinal added that a child told him, “if they want to make the flood, He wants to make the Ark of Noah.” He then invited Concesio and the land of Brescia to be an Ark of Noah.
On Sunday 22 September, Cardinal Pizzaballa celebrated Holy Mass at the Basilica of Saints Anthony Martyr and Paul VI and shared lunch with the parish community at the Oratory of the Pieve.
On 26 September, at the birthplace of Paul VI, the FMA animated the Rosary for the people. There, 127 years ago, Paul VI was born. Every year on this date, the Rosary is prayed to ask him for the courage to know how to defend the gift of life from all forms of manipulation and violence. On the 60th anniversary of Saint Paul VI’s visit to the Holy Land, prayer has again traveled to the holy places, entrusting to Mary life that is being born, families, and peace.
In the evening, there was Holy Mass celebrated by Monsignor Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto. Echoing the 60th of the Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam by Saint Paul VI, which was the manifesto of his pontificate at the service of the Church and the world, sealed by dialogue, in his homily Mons. Forte developed in a beautiful decalogue the essence of the Saint, considered the Pope of dialogue with modernity, with separated brethren, with Jewish and Muslim brethren, with all other faiths, and even with those who believe that faith is not part of existence.
On 28 September, presso la Basilica Minore, si è tenuto un Concerto eseguito dalla Cappella Musicale del Santuario San Giovanni XXIII di Sotto il Monte, Bergamo, città dove è nato e cresciuto Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, il Papa di cui fu successore Paolo VI, con cui Concesio è gemellata.
On Sunday 29 September, the FMA welcomed families into the birthplace who had children baptized in 2024, with whom they marched in procession, accompanied by the band to the Basilica of Saints Anthony Martyr and Paul VI, where there is the baptismal font which welcomed Giovanni Battista Montini into grace. As is tradition within this Montinian Week, the afternoon began the pastoral year of Concesio, with all the pastoral workers: catechists, educators, animators, members of the parish councils.
At the end of the Week, in the Minor Basilica at the Pieve, the 30th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Msgr. Marino Cotali, parishioner of Concesio was celebrated. At the end, the works of the collection “Association for Art Stars” Paul VI of contemporary art were presented, which in the last two years have been exhibited in the Baptistery of the Basilica, accompanying the liturgical times.
Always very numerous and felt by the population is the participation in the Montinian Week with its events. In fact, one perceives an intense affection that binds the people to the Pope, as if this land, which has seen his birth and accompanied him in his games, in his studies, in his growth, had with him a grateful debt to which it is joyfully and forever bound.
The wish, according to the presentation of Cardinal Pizzaballa, is that the land of Concesio and Brescia may really be an Ark of Noah, ready to welcome with dialogue and ecumenical spirit proper to the Gospel, all the challenges of this contemporary time, in particular that of peace in the Holy Land.
