Pope honors family roots in northern Italy with rare outing - Danbury News Times

NICOLE WINFIELD and GIANFRANCO STARA, Associated Press

Nov. 20, 2022Updated: Nov. 20, 2022 7:24 a.m.

On Saturday, helium made a backstage sojourn to relatives who inactive unrecorded successful the country and celebrated the 90th day of his 2nd cousin. On Sunday, helium was fixed the honorary citizenship of Asti and celebrated Mass successful the city’s cathedral, wherever helium assumed the relation of a section parish clergyman ministering to his flock.

“From these lands, my begetter acceptable retired arsenic an migrant to Argentina, and to these lands, rendered precious by the affluent fruits of the ungraded and supra each by the autochthonal industriousness of their people, I person present returned to rediscover and savor my roots,” helium said astatine the commencement of his homily.

Asti Bishop Marco Prastaro told Francis helium is ever invited backmost location and recalled that erstwhile helium was elected pontiff successful 2013, Francis quipped that his chap cardinals had gone to the “ends of the Earth” to find a caller pope.

"Today we’d similar to deliberation that Asti, the onshore of your household roots, is the opening of the world,” Prastaro said arsenic the pope chuckled.

Francis hasn’t returned location to his ain birthplace successful Buenos Aires since assuming the papacy astir 10 years agone and helium seldom speaks astir his family, siblings oregon childhood. The objection is his predominant notation to the important relation his paternal grandmother, Rosa, had successful his upbringing and successful passing on her Catholic faith.

Francis utilized immoderate of the Piedmont dialect Rosa taught him successful thanking the radical of Asti for welcoming him and urged young radical successful peculiar to not “stay inactive reasoning astir ourselves, wasting our lives and chasing aft comfortableness oregon the latest fads, but to purpose for the heights, get connected the move, leaving down our ain fears to instrumentality idiosyncratic successful request by the hand.”

Francis’ grandmother, Rosa Vassallo and the pope’s gramps ran a café successful Turin and near Italy to articulation household members who had settled successful Argentina, portion of the wide migration of Italians to the Americas astatine the commencement of the past century. They and their lone son, the pope’s father, Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, arrived successful Buenos Aires successful aboriginal 1929.

Once there, Mario Bergoglio met different descendant of Italian migrant stock, Regina Maria Sivori, whom helium joined successful 1935. A twelvemonth later, the archetypal of their 5 children was born: Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the aboriginal pope.

The Bergoglio household had primitively planned to acceptable sail from Italy astatine the extremity of 1927 connected the Principessa Mafalda water liner, but their departure was delayed arsenic they sold disconnected their location and the Turin cafe. In the end, the Mafalda sank disconnected Bahia, Brazil, connected Oct. 25, 1927, sidesplitting astatine slightest 300 of its much than 1,000 passengers and crew. The Bergoglios acceptable sail the pursuing year, connected the Giulio Cesare liner, and person ever “thanked divine providence” that they didn’t permission connected the Mafalda, the aboriginal pope wrote successful 1990.

According to household legend, grandma Rosa stepped disconnected the Giulio Cesare successful Buenos Aires wearing a full-length fox-trimmed coat, adjacent though it was the tallness of summertime successful the confederate hemisphere. In his biography of the pontiff “Pope Francis: Untying the Knots,” historiographer Paul Vallely explained: “Sewn into its lining was the full proceeds of the merchantability of the family’s location and café backmost successful Piedmont.”

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Winfield reported from Rome.