The International Association Community of the Mission of Don Bosco, founded by Guido Pedroni, in conversation with the Postulator General for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, have taken to heart Fr Elia Comini’s Cause of Beatification and in recent months have made the choice to enhance Fr Comini’s birthplace, located in Calvenzano di Vergato. For this reason it was decided to plan the renovation of the building and the adjacent wooded area as a Museum in memory of this Salesian architect of peace and minister of reconciliation, so that it becomes a reception house for young mothers and a meeting point for young people who wish to spend time in fraternity and vocational research.
This project is also followed and supported with interest by the Diocese of Bologna through the Archbishop and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi.
The pilgrimage was attended by some members of the Community, Salesian representatives and delegates from different countries around the world (Italy, Burundi, Haiti, Madagascar, Argentina, Chile, Ghana), Fr Joan Lluís Playà, Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family Secretariat.
During the concelebration Fr Cameroni retraced Fr Comini's witness of martyrdom, highlighting the pastoral charity that distinguished him throughout his life and especially in times of war, helping the tried and terrified population, carrying out works of corporal and spiritual mercy and offering his life, together with Dehonian Father Martino Capelli, to defend the weak and innocent.
At the end of the celebration, places where the works for the project known as the “Casa don Elia” will begin next September were blessed, an initiative blessed and also supported by the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime.
The group then went to visit the parish at Salvaro, where Fr Comini celebrated his last Mass on the morning of 29 September 1944 and then together with Father Capelli, took the holy oils and the Eucharist, and ran to a nearby town where the Nazis had massacred numerous people. Subsequently, a stop was made at Botte di Pioppe, where on Sunday, 1 October 1944, at dusk, a machine gun inexorably mowed down the 46 victims of what would go down in history as the"Slaughter of Pioppe di Salvaro": among them Fr Elia Comini and Fr Martino Capelli.
The theme of the Third General Assembly of the Community of the Mission of Don Bosco, the 28th group of the Salesian Family, was: “Faith without works is dead”. Looking to the witness of Fr Comini, the members of the Community seek to provide concrete answers to the questions of justice and peace that come from many parts of the world, through concrete projects of charity, reconciliation and service in the apostolic spirit of Don Bosco.
