Genoa, crowd for the farewell to the no-vax priest. Monsignor Tasca: “Generous and reserved”
Over 300 people in the church of Santo Stefano at the funeral of Don Paolo Romeo. The bishop: “The good he did was not known to all but I am a witness”
Genoa – The lady bundled up in her duvet shakes her head: «Communion in the hands? No way”. And he turns on his heels to leave the crowded abbey for the last farewell to Don Paolo Romeo, the priest who died of Covid at the age of 51.
Archbishop Marco Tasca celebrates the last farewell to his priest, consecrated in the last part of the nineties and linked, despite the registry office, to the more traditionalist current of the Catholic Church nostalgic for Pope Ratzinger. No-vax for an ethical choice, convinced that – despite the Vatican pronouncements and the example of Pope Francis – vaccines are bad and research has made use of cells from aborted fetuses. Objection cataloged among fake news by the world of rings and not considered as relevant even by the Congregation Propaganda Fidei. From that conviction, however, the priest’s choice was born not to get vaccinated and to accept the risks of the disease as proof. A position that cost him his life and, at the same time, made him become a symbol and martyr of the no-vax world.
The official Church, however, travels on different tracks. For days at the abbey door, signs had appeared which, alongside the information on Don Paolo’s funeral, reported the provisions for the ceremony: obligation to wear the ffp2 mask, keep the distance and “for Holy Communion, follow the instructions of the priest” . Indications that, announced from the altar, do not please everyone: Communion will be given only on the hands. Not in the mouth.
To understand what this means, simply scroll through the online pages of the “Daily Compass”, cult site for Catholicists. Communion in the hands is defined as “an imposed fashion”.
When Mass for the funeral begins at 10, everyone in the church wears a mask but the distancing proves impossible, in the church there are more than 300 people and others are on the square where loudspeakers have been set up. It is to this crowd that he addresses Archbishop Tasca paying homage to his “good and generous” priest. And then: “The good he did is not known to everyone but I am a witness to it”. It is a full and sincere recognition: a year and a half ago, the “Company of Ettore Vernazza or Mandiletto” was born in Santo Stefano with the aim of providing a support service to weak subjects, and in particular to those who, in the midst of pandemic, they were found in serious trouble. And again: the priest had welcomed the Ukrainian Orthodox community (present in large numbers at the funeral) and Catholic groups with a very different orientation from him.
Even before that, Don Paolo Romeo he had been labor chaplain and also for this father Tasca, a month ago he had chosen don Massimiliano Moretti as parish administrator of the abbey: Moretti and Romeo, although very different, had shared the religious activity within the companies and factories with Monsignor Molinari. This is why they had remained linked by esteem and friendship.
Today the community of Santo Stefano is looking for a new identity. And it is a tiring journey. “Sunday 23 January, finding myself in the center, I entered that – writes a reader to the XIX Century, signing herself but asking not to leave her name – it was 10.45 am and I was not so impressed by the fact that the celebrant was speaking from behind and speaking in Latin: the problem is that very few faithful had masks and not even the priest who had not disinfected his hands to reach the Eucharist. And almost all the faithful had gathered towards him and then knelt next to each other, elbow to elbow ».
Don Paolo, in those moments, he was dying at the Galliera for Covid. “Not for Covid, the doctors killed him,” says a parishioner with no possibility of replying. “Jackal journalists,” says a young man. Minorities. Hundreds of people are there, in Don Paolo’s abbey, just to pray for him.
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