In his speech, Mgr. Parmeggiani also wanted to update the message of this Cause of Beatification, entrusting to the Servant of God “all the victims of Covid and the healthcare personnel who are working to fight this terrible virus. But, to Mons. Cognata, victim of calumny and lies, I would like to ask to intercede so that in the Church and in society the spread of that other virus from which Pope Francis never ceases to warn: calumny, slander, falsehood. That through the intercession of Mons. Cognata we can all learn to be frank and respectful of each other.”
And he continued: “I like to think how this beginning of the diocesan investigation falls a few days after Pope Francis announced a year dedicated to St. Joseph, the patron saint of our Mons. Cognata. The Saint of silence, obedience, fatherhood, trust in God ... all attitudes that Mgr. Cognata tried to live fully.”
On behalf of the entire Salesian Family, the Rector Major brought his greeting. In particular, in the light of the Strenna for 2021, entitled “Moved by hope:'See, I am making all things new' (Rev 21,5)”, he underlined how in the face of the pandemic, “we Christians must have our own way of living this reality as believers. A year in which we can say that our brother Mons. Giuseppe Cognata took the 'beautiful vaccine of forgiveness'. For him, forgiveness was the norm of life, in living a life of suffering, but a life full of the sense of God, of faith and of the expectation of a justice that, without a doubt, he thought God would give.”
Mother Graziella Benghini, Superior General of the Salesian Oblates of the Sacred Heart (SOSC), expressed the joy and thanks of her entire Institute for this event of grace.
The Servant of God Mons. Giuseppe Cognata with his oblative spirituality, "Oblatus est quia ipse voluit" (he offered himself because he himself wanted it) is the singular incarnation of that chain of holiness of the Salesian Family which, beginning with the venerable Andrea Beltrami and continuing with Augusto Czartoryski, Luigi Variara, Laura Vicuña, Eusebia Palomino, Alexandrina da Costa, Nino Baglieri, Vera Grita and the numerous martyrs, he made visible and embodied in a special way the oblative dimension of the Salesian charism as an intimate desire to participate in the redemptive sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of souls, and which recalls how the fecundity of the Da mihi animas depends on the asceticism of the cetera tolle.
The opening act of the investigation is visible at the following link.
