This is a very important step in the process of Beatification and Canonization, greeted with joy both in Ecuador, particularly in the city of Cuenca, where Fr. Crespi spent much of his Salesian missionary life, and in Italy in Legnano, Fr. Crespi's birthplace.
"Truly a figure of great spiritual, missionary and cultural depth," commented Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General of the Causes of the Saints of the Salesian Family, "who conveys a powerful message of hope and offers us the testimony of a life totally handed over to the cause of the Kingdom of God in the service of the poor and the little ones, with the apostolic dynamism and Salesian joy of Don Bosco."
Carlo Crespi Croci was born in Legnano (Milan) on May 29, 1891. He is the third of thirteen children. At the age of twelve, he meets the Salesians at the St. Ambrose Boarding School in Milan. In 1903, he studied at the Salesian secondary school in Valsalice (Turin), and felt called by Don Bosco. On September 8, 1907, he made his first profession as a Salesian, and in 1910 his perpetual profession. In 1917 he was ordained a priest. At the University of Padua, he discovers the existence of a hitherto unknown microorganism, arousing the interest of scientists for this. In 1921 he received a doctorate in Natural Sciences, and later a degree in Music. In 1923, he leaves on a mission to Ecuador.
He disembarked in Guayaquil, made his way to Quito; soon afterward he moved to Cuenca, where he would remain for the rest of his life. He begins his enormous work for the poor: he has electric light installed in Macas, opens an Agricultural School in Yanuncay. In this way, he manages to open several other workshops, creating the first School of Arts and Crafts, later recognized as the Salesian Polytechnic University. In Yanuncay, he gives accommodation to novices, and in 1940 he also opens the Faculty of Education, becoming its first Rector. He also establishes the "Cornelio Merchán" elementary school for very poor children. He opens a College of Oriental Studies to give the necessary training to Salesians destined for the Ecuadorian East. He founds the Carlo Crespi Museum, which is very rich in scientific artifacts and known even outside America.
He divulged with all his might the devotion to Mary Help of Christians, consuming his life in the shrine of the same name. His confessional, especially in the last years of his life, is often crowded, and people spontaneously begin to call him "Saint Carlo Crespi." He is always among the poor: on Sunday afternoons he catechizes street children, giving them, in addition to entertainment, their daily bread. He organizes cutting and sewing workshops for the city’s poor girls.
He died in Cuenca on April 30, 1982. His fame is alive and people pray to him and venerate him as protector of the poor.
Now the Positio will be studied by the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints: these articulated stages of study and evaluation will allow the Supreme Pontiff, in case of a positive outcome, to declare Fr. Carlo Crespi "Venerable Servant of God." A miracle attributed to his intercession will then be needed to open the way to Beatification.
