BRISBANE’S Carmela and Leo Bozzi described the opportunity to be in St Peter’s Square, Rome, for the canonisation of Saints Giovanni Battista (John Baptist) Scalabrini, and Artemide Zatti on October 9 as a “gift”.
“We welcomed with joy the news that our dear Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini was going to be canonised,” Mrs Bozzi, who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2019 for her contribution to the local Italian community shared with The Catholic Leader on their return to Australian soil.
“(And) our gratitude was doubled when the date was announced because Leo and myself were going to be in Italy at that time, visiting my family.”
The Bozzi’s shared feelings of gratitude were linked to the past.
“We both felt particularly ‘graced’ because we had attended the beatification (of Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini) twenty-five years ago, on November 9, 1997, together with other pilgrims from Australia,” Mrs Bozzi continued.
“(And) there we were again, in the magnificent Piazza San Pietro, among a sea of migrants and faithful from all over the world, carrying colourful banners with the image of our own much loved Scalabrini.
“In all these years, many times we have prayed and sought his intercession, believing that he is still taking care of all of us migrants in a special way and entrusting our ageing Italian community to his constant protection.”
Seventy years after the Scalabrinian missionary order arrived in Australia, a pilgrimage group led by Fr Savino Bernardi CS, also took to the skies to attend the canonisation led by a frail Pope Francis.
As 2022 has been described as the “Scalabrini Year”, Australians have taken heart to the recognition of St Scalabrini as a voice for refugees and migrants because the canonisation occurred soon after the Holy Father’s annual World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
The newly declared Italian-born saints ministered to migrants departing Italy at the turn of the 20th century, recognising their hardships and hopes for the future.
Pope Francis said in his homily on October 9 that these saints can “help us to walk together, without walls of division, and to cultivate that nobility of soul, so pleasing to God, which is gratitude” and that St Scalabrini had “great vision”.
“Bishop Scalabrini, who founded a congregation for the care of emigrants … used to say that in the shared journeying of emigrants we should see not only problems but also a providential plan,” Pope Francis said.
For Mrs Bozzi, the ties to the land of birth remain strong, in the knowledge that saintly intercession is ever present.
“I know San Giovanni Battista Scalabrini guides me and helps me in the work that I do in the community, keeping me attentive to their needs and respectful of each and everyone’s story, with dignity and deep compassion,” she said.
“We feel so blessed to have taken the journey to be in Rome on October 9… we feel renewed and sent forth to something that maybe we still don’t know, but certain that San Giovanni Battista will walk right besides us.”
